When we left Mt. Cook, Karl had his most taxing drive. The road wound around mountains with hairpin turns – it was beautiful countryside and Pacific Ocean views.
But first we stopped at a church built in 1935 just outside of Mount Cook. It has a huge window overlooking the lake and mountains inside, but they would not allow photos inside, understandably.
We needed to get gas before we got to somewhere where it might not be available…so one more stop, whereupon John discovered a coffee-mobile!
On this day the car in front of us was Karl’s nemesis; he would finally get around him and then Melissa or I would want to stop for a photograph……and around us he would come again!
The Target store was not too impressive looking. We arrived early enough in Christchurch to have lunch at Zen Sushi – for soup dumplings! We checked into our hotel, Hotel Montreal, in time to watch the first half of the Sugar Bowl – way to go Texas!
We had a 5:30 appointment to see a Maori show, Ko Tane. It was lots of fun, especially when we participated in the show!
After the show we had dinner at Formaggio – Italian seems to be a big seller in New Zealand…..at least we had a lot of it, especially pizza!
I loved this picture hanging on the wall. It looked to me like it had dimension….but it didn’t. It’s of Naples.
We started fairly early the next morning to avoid the ever-present heat (much hotter everywhere than weather.com said it would be!!!!!). Our first stop was the Botanical Gardens. The Rose Garden was especially wonderful, but it was all interesting and we posed for lots of pictures in front of the hydrangea.
The next area of the garden that we visited was the New Zealand area and the Water Gardens.
And then, the hydrangea:
Next we boarded the Hop On-Hop Off Tram. We got off at the Christchurch Cathedral. There was an earthquake seven years ago which severely damaged this city. When John and I were there 12 years ago it was a quaint English-looking city. It is now a mixture of the old and the new modern. There are cranes everywhere as the work is still in progress. The Cathedral remains visibly in disrepair even though they have already spent a bunch of the $40 million that it will cost to repair.
Just for reference, here is a picture we took when we were in Christchurch in 2007. It was so beautiful!!
Melissa and I had had enough of being hot – next stop was for cool clothes shopping!! That did, of course, take awhile. Karl found our lunch spot and cooled his heels in Joe’s Garage with a local beer. John showed us how to find it after we finished. I changed in the dressing room and wore my sundress out!
We had a wonderful, amazingly wonderful lunch at Two Fat Indians – surprising because it was in a food court….but it was a full restaurant at the end of the food court.
After lunch we finished our city tram tour, we visited the Art Museum. The building was fabulous; the art was so-so.
Then, at about 4:00 p.m., we headed to Kaikoura – our next stop. It is basically a beach town. Since we didn’t arrive until almost 7:30 and then had to sit on the patio and unwind, the restaurants that we went to had a 40 to 60 minute wait. We ended up at Black Rabbit Pizza – only a 20 minute wait – and actually very good!
And below: Karl is behind this day’s nemesis!
We arrived at our motel in the early evening, then sat and drank awhile to relax. By the time we went to dinner all the restaurants we thought we were going to had closed their kitchens (9:00 p.m.). We finally did find a pizza restaurant who agreed to feed us.
In the morning we had breakfast at the coffee shop next door….included in the room rate! Interesting arrangement — no connection between the two….just the custom to include breakfast.
We met our guide/driver, who was exceptional. He is a Maori man and he taught us all about Maori history and showed us important places in Kaikoura to the Maori population. Then we had morning tea at his home with his wife and three of his grandsons – visiting while on summer break.
Our guide had his oldest grandson perform the traditional Maori greeting for us. This young man will be performing with Ko Tane, the show we saw in Christchurch in the coming months! Small world….
The apricot and coconut slice at the top of the plate was amazing!!! She kindly emailed me the recipe!
In front of our guide’s home and being carved by him — impressive!
We had a very short break before we drove to our Whale Watch Tour…..another great trip. We saw the whale that this area is famous for – the sperm whale. Then we met up with a Sei Whale which is uncommon for the area, but this one whale has been there for about a month instead of heading to the Antarctic. And she was spotted the day of our tour from a plane with a calf suckling from her. They are hoping that with global warming that perhaps the Sei Whale will decide this is an acceptable summer destination!
Can you tell how long he is?
We had dinner that night at The Whaler:
That night Melissa and Karl went down to the beach to collect their sand and put their toes in the water. They built a rock pile while they were at it.
Then, in the morning we were off for the last drive — this time to our final stop — the Marlborough wine country! But we had a stop along the way at The Store. We took lots of pictures there; John had a coffee and the rest of us had wine. We played outside in their fabulous hammocks and, of course, posed for some pictures. Then we were off again for the last leg.
John told Melissa he was a 3 and that rated higher than an 8! Whatever!!!
Fondly,
Beth
