One hears about the student army of thousands of young volunteers who helped to provide meals and dr

From the picturesque harbor of Akaroa to the Tolkienesque mountainscapes of the Southern Alps, New Zealand's Canterbury region spoils visitors with sweeping scenery, farm-fresh food, easy adventure, and genuine bonhomie. So what are you waiting for?
My week in New Zealand's Canterbury rental cars in phoenix az region began in Christchurch, on the central east coast of the South Island. But I won't talk about that just yet: a city still reeling from a series of devastating earthquakes is hardly the best place to kick off a travel article.
Shall I entice you instead with sightings of adorable rental cars in phoenix az Hector's dolphins in the great volcanic bowl of Akaroa Harbour? Or with a ski-plane landing on the ancient ice of the Tasman Glacier, high in the Southern Alps? No—let us begin at the end of my trip, gazing up at the night sky above Lake Tekapo, a firmament so thick with stars that it glowed like silver filigree. This was atop the tussocky rise of Mount John, whose bland name does nothing rental cars in phoenix az to suggest that it is home to New Zealand's premier planet-hunting facility, an astronomical observatory run by the University of Canterbury. It's also the centerpiece of one of only four dark-sky reserves on the earth, a designation conferred on places where the quality of stargazing is, well, out of this world, rental cars in phoenix az thanks to few clouds and virtually no light pollution. (Even the bus that took us to Mount John's summit was obliged to switch of its headlights before reaching the top, so as not to interfere with the observatory's sensitive research equipment. It made for a few nail-biting moments.)
Had I known any of this before signing up for the Earth Sky stargazing tour—there's precious little else to do in the tiny township of Lake Tekapo on a chilly mid-autumn night—I might not have been quite so dumbstruck by that vast star-studded skyscape, though I did join in the chorus of oohs and aahs as our guide used his laser pointer to walk us through the heavens. We could not see a cloud because, as Lewis Carroll once pointed out, no cloud was in the sky. But we did see the Magellanic Clouds—two galaxies that orbit our own at a distance of tens of thousands of light years—and the entire arc of the Milky Way, called Te Ikaroa by the Maori, whose legends describe it as a great fish swimming across the sky. There was Orion to the west, and Scorpius rising in the east; the Southern Cross and a star cluster called the Jewel Box; gas clouds and nebulae; and Venus and Mars hanging somewhere overhead and clearly visible to the naked eye, once you knew what to look for.
By the time a round of hot chocolate was served I had a crick in my neck as bad as after my first visit to the Sistine Chapel. But the show wasn't rental cars in phoenix az over yet. Though we didn't have access to the observatory proper, we did have the use of a small observation dome housing a stubby but powerful telescope. What I saw through that was the last gift in a week that had unfolded like a well-wrapped rental cars in phoenix az present. It was Saturn, rings and all, a pale orb framed against the blackness of deep space. You could have knocked me over with a kiwi feather.
EYEBALLING THE COSMOS leaves you feeling small and insignificant. So it is with natural disasters. In February 2011, Christchurch, New Zealand's most populous city after Auckland and the gateway to the South Island, was hit by a 6.3 magnitude earthquake that claimed 185 lives and caused billions of dollars in damage. rental cars in phoenix az This much I knew going in. What I wasn't rental cars in phoenix az prepared for was the extent of the devastation. While it's pretty much business as usual in the suburban malls of Merivale and Riccarton, more than 10 blocks of the city center—the so-called "red zone"—have been cordoned off with chain-link fencing, beyond which the deserted streets look like a scene from a post-apocalyptic rental cars in phoenix az sci-fi movie. Not that it's completely devoid of life: I could see work crews clearing away rubble, and cranes and high-reach excavators bringing down dozens of condemned buildings. Among them, controversially, is Christchurch Cathedral, the iconic 19th-century Anglican church whose steeple collapsed in the quake.
During my visit this past April, local papers such as the Central Canterbury News were filled with heated opinion about Bishop rental cars in phoenix az Victoria Matthews's decision to deconstruct rather than rebuild the beloved landmark; her most outspoken opponent appeared rental cars in phoenix az to be the Wizard of New Zealand (this, improbably, rental cars in phoenix az is an official title), a Gandalfian character with a pointy hat and black robe who's delivered soapbox sermons in Cathedral rental cars in phoenix az Square for as long as anyone can remember. In one well-aimed barb, he called the bishop "seriously cracked." But for all those Cantabrians waiting rental cars in phoenix az for insurance money to rebuild their ruined homes or businesses, there are more pressing concerns, not the least of which has been a series of aftershocks that geologists predict will continue for decades to come.
"There are so many good recovery stories here," rental cars in phoenix az said Kelly Stock of Christchurch and Canterbury rental cars in phoenix az Tourism, who last year left her job at the local Mercedes-Benz dealership to "do my part" by helping to woo tourists back to the city. "Christchurch has always had strong rental cars in phoenix az people, a strong character, I suppose because so many of us are from tough farming stock. But the way the community has pulled together has been incredible. Before the quake, you might not have known your neighbors; now, you do, and we check in on each other, helping out where we can. It was a high price to pay, but the quake has taught us that we're capable of so much more than we thought."
One hears about the student rental cars in phoenix az army of thousands of young volunteers who helped to provide meals and drinking water to elderly residents, and to clear away the 360,000 tons of silt and sludge forced up through the ground by a seismic phenomenon known as liquefaction. One reads encomiums to Mayor Bob Parker, whose leadership throughout the disaster has been likened to that of post-9/11 New York's Rudy Giuliani. And one sees signs of recovery everywhere, from the new 17,000-seat rugby stadium to the former grain warehouse that now serves as the temporary home of the Court Theatre, one of the country's top theater companies. Then there are the repurposed shipping containers: lots and lots of them.
Two, painted rental cars in phoenix az a russet hue, bookend a converted car wash now occupied by Cargo Bar, in the emerging business hub of Addington. Owner Henare "H" Akuhata-Brown opened the venue last August, just months after his popular city-center Lyme Bar was shuttered following the February earthquake. "The first question my partner Angelique and I asked ourselves was whether we even wanted to stay in Christchurch," says H, who is originally from Hawke's Bay. "We did —it's a very special place, and we want to be part of the rebuilding process."
That process is expected to take at least 15 years, but when it's complete, city planners hope to have reinvented Canterbury's regional capital as a smart, sustainable 21st-century city. In the meantime, more than two dozen businesses have returned to the Cashel Street retail precinct, right on the edge of the red zone, where gutted buildings have been replaced by a pedestrian shopping mall made from stacked shipping containers. Called Re:START, rental cars in phoenix az the makeshift complex has brought a measure of buzz back to the downtown area, too, with clothing outlets and cafés doing a brisk trade. rental cars in phoenix az I picked up a fleece for my next day's drive into the Canterbury high country, thumbed through photo books about the city's quake-ruined architecture (one particularly poignant volume was titled All Fall Down: Christchurch's Lost Chimneys ), and, take-out latte—they call them flat whites here—in hand, stood among a knot of other tourists watching as a monster-jawed excavator chewed through a 10-story building on the other side of the cordon. At one point, a huge slab of concrete and twisted rebar toppled 30 meters to the ground. I felt a tremor through the pavement.
Duly chastised, I followed the now-silent tramline toward the Christchurch Botanic Gardens. First planted in 1863, at about the same time that the prolific Victorian architect George Gilbert Scott was polishing off his design for Christchurch Cathedral, the gardens today are more of a refuge than ever. Amid the stands of century-old "exotic" (which is to say, imported) trees like beech and yew and oak, and native plantings of fern and eucalyptus, there's little to remind you of the city's troubles. Nor could there be a more idyllic scene than boatmen from the old Antigua Boat Sheds poling Cambridge-style punts down the willow-draped Avon River on its looping course rental cars in phoenix az through the park.
With its punts and its tearooms and its peppering of Gothic Revival architecture, Christchurch has traditionally regarded itself as the most English of New Zealand cities.  I headed to the Canterbury Museum to learn something about its history. Instead, I found myself back in the present, or at least the very recent past. The Canterbury Quakes exhibition presented an overview of the area's seismic scars, beginning with the nonfatal but powerful earthquake rental cars in phoenix az of September 2010, which was for many Cantabrians the first they learned rental cars in phoenix az that they were living on a fault line. But most of the displays had to do with the February quake of the following year. Among the most poignant artifacts was the cross from the fallen spire of Christchurch Cathedral—three rental cars in phoenix az meters of crumpled copper sheathing and splintered wood.
NO TRAVELER TO NEW ZEALAND should rental cars in phoenix az pass up the opportunity rental cars in phoenix az to stay at one of the country's great lodges. Fortunately for me, there was one near at hand: Otahuna, an 1895 Queen Ann–style rental cars in phoenix az mansion in the countryside of Tai Tapu, 20 minutes by car from Christchurch. Set on a knoll at the neck of a valley that opens onto the fertile Canterbury Plains, it's a gorgeous spot, with views of the Southern Alps from the verandas of its top-floor suites. My room was also incredibly plush,  credit for which goes to the lodge's current owners, rental cars in phoenix az American partners Hall Cannon a