13 January: Cross Country, Christchurch to Greymouth, through the Southern Alps

After yesterday's gloomy weather, today's more than made up for it. We had spectacular blue skies as we traveled through the Southern Alps. Some mountains were covered in bush, some were solid limestone, and some began with pine and ended in stone and snow.

We stopped for two hikes. The first was an unexpected and fascinating place, Castle Hill. Giant limestone formations jutted out all along the mountain.

The second was a short trek, but was comprised on 560 stairs round trip, to a beautiful mountain waterfall.

The bird is a kea, the only non-tropical parrot in the world, and only found on the south island of New Zealand.

Finally, sunset and moonrise over the chilly South Pacific at Greymouth.