Palmerston North from the air

Palmerston North!! The heart and soul of the Manawatu region and also the place we call home (sweet home). On this picture our house is somewhere on the top right, close to the river. Around 80,000 people live here. Of those, a significant percentage are students at Massey University who come from everywhere around the country and overseas and have made of this place one of the most important student cities in the country. We all call this place "Palmy".

In case you were wandering...yes, there is a Palmerston (south). The city was initially named Palmerston, but then the word "north" was added to differentiate it from the town of Palmerston in the south island.

The Tranzalpine

The TranzAlpine scenic train travels between Christchurch and Greymouth. From the carriage you get fantastic views of the Canterbury Plains and the Arthur's Pass.
An open air viewing platform on the train allows you to get closer to the scenery and provides many opportunities to get good pictures.

The journey takes 4 and a half hours one way, it is 223.8 kilometres long and there are 16 tunnels, one of them being 8 kms long.

Lyttelton

Lyttelton is a small port town next to the Banks Peninsula, and it's pretty much where the colonisation of the area started a hundred and sixty years ago. It's a nice little place to spend a sunny day, and a great spot to take pictures of the surrounding scenery.

Ed showed us around Lyttelton on our second "proper" visit to Christchurch and the Canterbury region.

Longview Hut Track

The track is on the Eastern Ruahine Forest Park, quite steep, but only 3 hours long.
Nice for a day trip.

Snowboarding in Turoa, Mt.Ruapehu

Not bad for a first timer, is it?

Castle Point on a stormy day

Gustly winds, rain, hail and massive waves (5m swell) last sunday at Castle Point.