We’re still here
The next morning the rain had cleared, though it was cold, somewhere in the 60’s. We set out for the inland highway, abandoning the coast to its storms. On the way out of town we were going to stop to see a seal colony, but we learned that the seals had revolted, declared independence and were no longer a colony, so we moved on
Route 6 cuts across NZ through the Buller Gorge, following the Buller River through the upper end of the Southern Alps. The mountains here are not quite as stark as in the south, looking just a bit softer in profile and more thickly forested in some places. The road clings to a track cut along the cliff above the river with a lot of blind curves, the apex of which appears to be in thin air.
We stopped in the small town of Murchison, scene of two major earthquakes about 30-some years apart, in 1929 and again in 1968. I did some quick figuring and it seemed that we were just about in time for the next one. Throwing caution to the wind however, we stopped for lunch at a charming hotel (first established in 1873 and pretty much continuously operated ever since. As usual here in NZ, this town smaller than Inez or Middletown had a hotel restaurant with an endless selection of main and side dishes and desserts most magnificent. Also as usual, I over ate.
We toured the earthquake museum, a small building with exhibits consisting mainly of newspaper clippings on the wall, detailing the devastation wreaked by the sudden earth shifts. We got out of town before the next one hit….but just barely in a sense. Two days later there was an underwater quake near Tonga, “felt in New Zealand”….but not by us.