Tuesday March 4
An early-ish morning flight from Coolangatta to Christchurch saw us landing in NZ at about 2:30pm. We picked up the hire car and drove into town to the delightful Airb'n'b we had booked close to the centre of the city.
Laura and Jeff were already in town and we caught up with them for a couple of beers before heading out for dinner at "The Bog" - a lovely Irish pub nearby.
"So. what shall we do tomorrow?" we asked and we were surprised to be told that they had plans for the day.
"We're getting married!"
Once we lifted our jaws off our laps we just hugged and kissed and laughed. Happy!
Wednesday March 5 - The Wedding Day!
Still shocked, we all had breakfast and then the girls headed out to get their hair and beauty stuff done while Jeff and I wandered across to the nearest pub for a beer and to buy some champagne for the event.
Once the girls were back and changed into their wedding frocks we took a few photos and waited for the stretch limo to arrive,
The happy couple :)
Mother of the bride concentrating >
The limo turned up and we piled in. A lovely ride to the venue, John Jameson Lookout with views over Lyttelton Harbour.
A beautiful spot.
Did I mention champagne? Well we all enjoyed a few glasses and then headed back to the car to go "home" to relax a little and absorb the day before walking out to the restaurant (an Asian fusion place called Inaki) for a dinner to remember.
Dinner was just bloody lovely and topped up by more champagne on top of the wines matched with each of the nine courses.
Thursday March 6
After a relaxed recovery breakfast we all took a walk along the river to the markets. The place was a whole lot more than just a set of market stalls and we took our time getting there and sorting out a place for lunch.
We chose a German bar and drank NZ beer and ate pizza - not really German, but excellent all the same.
We took almost no photos that day, but this was their arch or remembrance.
Jeff and Laura were flying to Hamilton (and then driving home to Waitomo) that afternoon so we dropped them off at the airport before we went home to gather our thoughts.
It had been a fantastic day!
Friday March 7
We drove out of Christchurch still smiling and headed north to Kaikoura.
The road was pleasantly free of much traffic and well surfaced so even at our relaxed pace we covered ground quickly.
On the way we decided to grab a coffee, preferably somewhere off the main drag so we drove on to Gore Bay and looked around. The township wasn't big enough to have a coffee shop so we moved on the Cheviot which was big enough and was a delightful little town.
These photos are of Cathedral Gully which we passed on our way in to Gore Bay.
Gore Bay was beautiful, in a rugged and white-cliffed way, but no coffee!
The road on from Cheviot to Kaikoura clung to the edge of the land, usually next to the railway line, with steep hills on one side and the ocean on the other. Dramatically scenic stuff.
As we approached Kaikoura we could see the snow-capped mountains we were to travel around marching down to the ocean at Kaikoura itself.
Not a huge amount of snow, but it is the end of a long, hot summer so we'll take whatever snow they still have!
This bloke was keeping watch.
We reached Kaikoura easily and checked into the motel we had booked for the next two nights.
The photo above and the one below were taken from the balcony of our room. Nice eh?
Then there was Kaikoura beach - pebbles instead of sand but that's cool.
Saturday March 8
We'd done some recce work yesterday and decided that we'd take a look at the seal colony this morning and go what watching this afternoon. Real touristy stuff, but we're tourists so that's OK.
Spot the seals.
Seals in the distance, but some interesting rock formations too.
Mummy seal feeding baby, and right next to where we were walking.
Right - next up, after lunch, is whale watching!
As always with whales, you don't actually get so see much of them, but it's always exciting.
A sperm whale.
A different sperm whale blowing his nose.
Then we watched one of them sounding and the display of his tail was pretty cool.
Next up was a blue whale - the biggest thing to ever be alive!
Not that you could tell from this!
All up a very exciting day and we were still buzzing when we went to dinner at one of the local restaurants.
The end of the day (they have long evenings in NZ) and we were tired,
More travelling tomorrow.
Sunday March 9
Heading north again, this time to Picton. The road still followed the coast and continued to be as dramatic a journey as anything else we've seen.
We stopped at a rest area to check out the views and found it, like virtually every other rest area, to be beautifully laid out and scenic.
Leaving the rest area we only travelled a couple of klms before we saw a sign to a cafe and we found this place.
The bug on the roof is a giant statue of a local crayfish and yes, they had them for sale.
Picton - we expected it to be something other than what it is, It's the main port for the ferry from the North Island and we thought it would be jus ta bit commercial.
In fact, it's a beautiful little spot with some stunning country and really nice, friendly people.
We parked up and went for a beer at a bar that looked out onto the harbour - see the view above - and we just soaked up the atmosphere before heading to our AirB'n'B and checking in.
The arch of remembrance
Monday March 10
A quiet day today, just mooching around Picton and then taking a drive to a lookout.
The view out to the harbour from the lookout.
The view back to the town.
Tuesday March 11
Well yesterday we booked our trip out to the Queen Charlotte Track with a night in the Furneaux Lodge. A bloody expensive night, but there aren't many options so we took it.
The pictures from this point are from the mail boat that we took to get to the start of the track.
You can see from the pictures below just how beautiful the views were and also just how bloody steep the country is!
The track itself was punishingly hard. 17 klms of rough, steep and painful walking, but we reached the luxurious safety of Furneaux Lodge.
This was the view from our room.
Somewhat embarrassingly we decided that our bodies had suffered enough and we abandoned the walk from this point on, returning to Picton on the mail boat again.
We're glad we did what we did though.
Wednesday March 12
Still a little stiff we left our AirB'n'B and headed off on the scenic route to our next stop, Motueka.
We drove the move beautifully scenic road and loved every minute of it.
You can see just how stunning the views out over the Queen Charlotte Sound are!
We stopped for a coffee and a cake in Havelock where the road became more traffic laden and a lot less interesting, and then again in Nelson for lunch.
We reached Motueka early in the afternoon and took a look around the town deciding to eat at the local craft brew restaurant - a good decision as it turned out.
Thursday March 13
Still keen on seeing these walking tracks, but somewhat nervous about our ability to walk them, we took a drive to Kaiteriteri and booked on a boat that was to take us to an easy part of the Abel Tasman Track and pick us up again the same day.
An what a magic day it was!
The beach at Kaiteriteri was beautiful and had a few boats moored like the one above.
Just a lovely and safe beach.
The boat we were to take wasn't available so they put us on a very fast water taxi that zoomed along.
The driver was a friendly bloke who stopped off at a couple of interesting spots to show us some of the beauty of the place.
Split Apple Rock,
The next spot (above and below) was Torrent Bay
A boat was moored safely here, but check out the swing bridge behind it - part of the track.
We were eventually dropped off at a beach and we headed off along the track.
Gorgeous!
It was a tiring journey!
The day ended with a delightful sail back to Kaiteriteri where we tried unsuccessfully to find a pub to have a celebratory drink. We ended up driving back to Motueka and sipping there instead,
Friday March 14
We had decided that, instead of driving down the west coast and stopping in two different places, we’d drive straight to Hanmer Springs and spend two nights there.
The drive there was magical - it took us through the centre of the northern part of the island and it was a quiet run with gorgeous scenery.
Regrettably I didn’t take any photos!
We stopped at one lookout spot that was cold and windy but had a great set of views.
We reached Hanmer Springs after a lovely drive and the views from our hotel room are shown below.
Gorgeous autumn colours starting to come out now.
Inevitably we found ourselves at a local brewery 😊
Saturday March 15
Today was the day, after some shopping and wandering the village, to hit the hot springs and relax into mineral springs at 38 or 40 degrees. There were a dozen or more pools and not too many people so we sat and soaked and felt oh so much better.
A great experience. Especially when followed by a beer at the brewery.
Sunday March 16
Walking time today and we chose to take a walk through the Hanmer Forest Reserve. Walking in the woods is always a good thing, but this place had some lovely carvings dotted throughout the fores
The walk took us a few hours so we called into the Irish pub for a pint of Murphy’s.
Very enjoyable 😍
Monday March 17
It was only a short drive to Christchurch this morning so we thought we’d take a look at the Antarctic Centre.
To be honest it would have been better if you were a twelve year old kid as looking a penguins and listening to a guy talk about his husky dogs wasn’t enthralling.
Still, some things were interesting.
We took an off road trip in a Hagglund.
Then we entered the giant fridge where we felt something of what it is like on the ice there.
After that we returned the car to the hire company and had a pretty good meal in the hotel.
Tuesday March 18
Early flight home. It’s been fun.
