Today was a travel day. We left Cook Village to a blanket of low cloud (no views today) and did our bit for international relations by ferrying a couple of French backpackers the 60km from Cook Village to the road. Then we turned North again.
First stop was lake Tekapo, and the University of Canterbury (astronomical) observatory. Unfortunately, Lake Tekapo is on the main tourist trail, and coinciding with Chinese new year meant that the place was heaving.
Stunning views of Lake Tekapo from the observatory though.
Then on to Geraldine. Made famous by their life size (nearly) copy of the Bayeux tapestry, made entirely out of painted bits of metal taken from industrial knitting-machine pattern-disk-things.
It was truly a sight to behold. The guy who made it was on hand to tell you just how amazing it was. Given that he finished it 20 years ago, it is particularly impressive that he still has as much enthusiasm for extolling the virtues of the thing.
Hannah has seen the original, and this apparently compares well for the following reasons:
1. It is much shinier.
2. He filled in about 6m of the battle of Stamford Bridge, which the original monks saw fit to leave out, much to the creator of this piece's derision.
3. He also re-invented the ending of the tapestry (again several metres) which has been long lost. Apparently the people at Canterbury university (the UK one) fully support his interpretation.
4. Woven into the piece is a code with about 180 puzzles to solve. The creator was very pleased that so far, no-one has solved more than 11.
In all honesty though, it was pretty impressive.
Oh, and before we move on, the very same building houses the world's largest Jersey.
Speechless! (For once. Enjoy it while it lasts...)
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