Our South Island adventure winds down.

Today's post will be the last one detailing our South Island adventure.  It sure was a remarkable one. 

This first picture is a shot of the price list at a race track we visited.  You can have plenty of fun here as you can see.  

I don't know if you noticed it in the previous pictures, but 'loo with a view' is mentioned under the No-Drive heading on the sign. 

They have quite a few restrooms, for both the ladies and gentlemen that have windows all along the side facing the racetrack. That way, if a race is in progress, you don't have to miss any of the action if you're called away by personal needs.   

The glass is of course, one-way, and all the rooms have themes.  The ladies are done up with very fancy decorations; talk about throne-rooms.  

The picture below shows one of the men's rooms.  I don't usually take photos of such things, but this one is rather unique.  When used properly, each instrument plays a tune for as long as you're using it.  

Lake Wanaka. This is way more beautiful in person.  The sun was warm and the air just slightly cool. I'm sure my mouth was hanging open.  

We were treated like royalty at our lunch stop.

Alan, our bus driver, tour guide, and new friend, got to show off his home town of Alexandra, complete with its famous clock on the hill.  He told us stories about having helped to install it many years ago.  

We discovered on this trip that Barry and Janet, who live at our village and organize the tours that we residents can take, and Alan and Angela, their business partners, were true experts at providing each of us with a personalized experience. We could choose the type of room we wanted, there were choices to be made at all the meals, and special diets were accommodated. The tour was planned in such a way that there were times of rest after major events. And they never forgot how important the lava-trees are when traveling. Jeanne and I were more than impressed and thank them heartily for giving us such an experience. 

I've enjoyed sharing all these pictures and experiences of our South Island adventure. Interesting pictures have been a little harder to obtain since Covid came into the world and my travel was restricted. There were times when I worried a bit about what I could build a post from. It's been nice during these past months having an easily accessible file of photos to show you.  

It may be just a little harder for a time in the future as well, to come up with new places to photograph. So many places have been damaged by tropical cyclone Gabrielle. Many places, even around our suburb of Henderson, have trees, or parts of trees down, and mud is everywhere the water was at its highest point. It will be quite some time before life is back to normal.  

I'll be out there looking though, and bringing you what I think may be interesting views from like-no-other-place-on-earth New Zealand. I hope you'll keep coming back to see them.   

Just a quick additional note regarding the cyclone damage.  I was out walking just after the storm and was enormously impressed with the level of activity.  Two-person teams were seemingly everywhere I went, putting up barriers at danger points and taking pictures and notes about what they saw. It's obvious that prioritizing will have to be done when rebuilding, repairing, or cleaning up after the damage. But the first step is to have a clear picture of where to send the resources. And I think they're doing a great job at accomplishing that goal.     -djf