Blah Blah Bliss

Day 22 Tuesday (23/08/2011)

2011-09-29T11:59:00.001+10:00

Blaar! Blaar! Blaar! do you want to know what that is? It's my alarm going off at 3:30am after not having a great sleep! BUT, it IS time to get up to get ready to leave for the airport. No way to escape it. Thankfully we had prepared everything a little earlier : ). We didn't even get time to finish our coffees, let alone start them before our taxi (courtesy of the motel) turned up.

It was 0 degrees C outside but inside the terminal it was very warm. I had dressed for the cold. We boarded at 6:05am and found our seats to be even more squishy than what we've ever had before, and they even seem smaller than the seats all around us due to some aircraft equipment under our seats. I mean the distance to the seats in front of us seemed smaller. I'm wondering if we are the victims of an airline experiment to see at what point the people will complain! Two hours into the flight it began to get incredibly stuffy and I started to feel claustrophobic and nauseous. A trip to the loo to remove some long sleeves seemed to help.

We landed at 8:00am to an almost tropical rainy day in Brisbane with huge grey storm clouds looming over the city. (What a difference!) We had to then wait till 10:30am for our bus from the airport to Roma St bus terminal where we transferred to a coach for the final leg of our journey. It was very comfortable and I enjoyed (and Ian did too) a nice snoozy trip back up our mountain to Toowoomba.

Ian walked back to our home just around the corner to get our car and then collect me and our luggage for the short trip home. We quickly unloaded, unpacked, let everyone know we were home via text messages, and then I went and grabbed a few essentials from Coles supermarket..

At about 3:30pm the sound of those three little grandies, Georgie, Lila and Violet, and of course our daughter Phoebe, burst through the back door with noise and smiles, and life suddenly returned back to normal.

THE END

Bye for now

Day 21 Monday (22/08/2011)

2011-09-28T19:18:00.000+10:00

The nights are certainly becoming warmer. We had set our alarm to 7am as we wanted to get an early start. We dressed and had breaky and while Ian was getting the camper ready to go, I set off in search of pretty photos. Not hard to do at this place. Trickling stream, babbling brook, birdsong, snowy hills, shaded forest and leafy pathways. Then we set off for the drive to Christchurch via Lyttleton. We were rewarded with some of the most spectacular scenery yet (in the way of bays, glistening blue/green and snowy mountains.) We took a detour to go up to yet another very high lookout called Sign of the Kiwi and found there was still plenty of snow on the ground and incredible view of the whole area. We were surprised to see lots of cyclists way up here, (of the mountain-biking kind and road racing variety.)

The beautiful scenic mountain drive and the suburbs seemed to blend somewhat seamlessly, and before we realised it we were driving through the hilly outer suburbs of Christchurch. We drove right through the centre of the city and saw lots of earthquake damaged buildings. The old churches seem to have taken a beating. We navigated our way to Northlands shopping center so we could look for those last couple of souvenirs, but we found nothing suitable. So next on to a refuse station to do the very last offload, then on to the Airport Gateway Lodge to unload ALL of our gear. It seems to have expanded! How did that happen?

Ian dropped the camper back to Apollo and after having to put some pressure on, they dropped him back to the motel. We realised we'd have to go in search of feed and those missing souvenirs, so we decided to hoof it to the shops. Well.... after 90 minutes we finally found the shops!!! We were so worn out, we ached all over. Walking on hard footpaths is NOT like hiking through lovely snow or forest! It's harder and WAY LESS rewarding! We didn't find any paua shell, but Ian found a cute lambie all on his own so we adopted him. McCafe provided us a lovely coffee and some afternoon tea; then we bought Indian take-away for dinner. We caught a bus back practically to our door and then had the LONGEST showers before a totally relaxing night. We had sorted most of our baggage out earlier and our alarms were set for 3:30am!!!

Funny little foot bridge over a stream at Orton Bradly Park

Beautiful forest walks at Orton Bradly Park

Pretty streams too!

Notice Ian using his iphone while driving on a windy mountain road

Our last lookout on our holiday, what a beauty!

Our last sight of snow, there was still plenty of it in the mountains

Day 20 Sunday (21/08/2011)

2011-09-27T10:58:00.001+10:00

The night was chilly again, but we were warm. We woke just before the alarm went off and we got up, got dressed quickly so we could go for a walk to the beach which was supposed to be 5 minutes walk away. I t would have been a long 5 minutes if we had continued going by the look of the road, so we gave it a miss. Thirty minutes would have done it. Back to the camper for a quick breaky and head off to Timaru.

Not a LOT happening in Timaru on a Sunday! We saw a berry shop/cafe outside Timaru, bought some more raspberry jam to take home, stopped down the road a bit and made scones for morning tea. Our next stop was Ashburton. I was excited about this place as its where they make the Ashford spinning wheels. I would have loved to get one but I was so surprised by the price. $NZ550. That would be $AU440. I think I'll look for a second hand one on ebay. We found some nice gardens in Ashburton (after we'd done a shop at Countdown - Ian's fave shop) and made bacon and egg burgers for lunch. I know; it's getting to be a habit!

As usual we had prayed about our day, and I fully believe God has been directing us and leading us. We didn't want to head straight to Christchurch and I wouldn't have minded going to see Akoroa again. The highway travel was soooo boring!, and I felt like we were wasting our last precious day of our beautiful holiday. We looked at the map and our possibilities. We decided to turn right at Burnham just before Christchurch and head in the direction of Akoroa, but instead of continuing to Akoroa, turn left at Motukarara and drive through Gebbies Pass to Diamond Bay. We can see on the map there is a camper park there. The drive was so pretty and on the way a bonus! Ian spotted a ewe who had JUST given birth to twin lambs. I got some pics of course. A bit gory, but pretty amazing. I have been wanting a photo of what I call the 'maternity section', a paddock full of ewes with their newborn lambs. There are also 'pre-natal wards' where the paddocks are full of very pregnant ewes. The sheep here are like popcorn, all ready to pop! We got photos of a paddock full of beautiful brown ewes and lambs on the way as well.

We eventually found the camper place with only minutes to spare as the notice said the gates would be shut at 5:30pm. It was 5:20pm. After passing through Gebbies Pass, the drive to the park was very similar to the Otago Peninsula drive, with windy roads right next to the water. This park is called Orton Bradly Park and is a community park. Campers stay for a donation of $NZ15. It's powered, natural, pretty, big, and WE are the only ones here! The manager (Ian) told us about a couple of walks here, so we took the 20 minute round trip to Dunmallet (the top of a hill). It was just on dusk and it was so pretty, calm and peaceful up there I felt compelled to give God praise, He is so good. After I yelled out 'Praise You Jesus', I just felt creation all around responding in kind with 'Yes, praise His glorious Name!'

Our morning tea spot; how pretty is that!

Brown sheep maternity ward

Can you spot the Pukeko?

Here he is!

The entrance to Orton Bradly Park

The scenery at Orton Bradly Park

Day 19 Saturday (20/08/2011)

2011-09-26T13:23:00.000+10:00

Eeek! We slept in! Ian had his alarm set for 7am but we woke at 8am; a nice cosy sleep though. BUT, I still was cranky. We prayed about our day though and I determined to 'change up my attitude'. We decided to go to the Otago Peninsula out from Dunedin about 40km.

A beautiful drive right beside the water most of the way. We were hoping to see penguin and albatross at the Royal Albatross Centre. On our way we dropped in to see Larnach Castle which is New Zealand's only castle (apparently). It's situated right up on a high hill (as usual) and is hardly what I'd call a 'castle'. Not quite as grand as I'd expect a castle to be, but like a castle on a small scale. (Not that I've seen any castles in my life, but what I've seen on the telly.) It has an interesting history though. We drove right to the top and the entry and found we had to pay to see (a) castle and garden $NZ25@ or (b) just the gardens $NZ12.50@, so we decided to look at the castle from the gardens. They weren't that grand either, but it was interesting with a lot of nice little photo ops for me, and we enjoyed the relaxing walk around.

Then we drove the rest of the way to see the albatross and penguins, but of course it was $NZ25@ for a guided tour. We opted to watch the live-streaming video of the nesting albatross for a while for free and the staff told us lots of stories about these amazing gigantic birds and their history.

We then drove back into town. I forgot to say that prior to our drive we went to the farmer's markets and bought one rose apple, $NZ1, a loaf of 'pain au levain' $NZ5, 600g frozen raspberries, $NZ6, some Evansdale Farmhouse Brie, $NZ7, and a Chocolate Brioche, $NZ3.50. We also went for a short walk around town to see some of the famous architecture and churches. I've found some of the things that make these towns famous are a bit over-rated in most cases. I suppose I'm comparing everything to Paris, which is hardly fare is it? We had a lunch of brioche, bread, cheese and raspberries. A wee bit decadent you may think? Hmmm? (THEN, we went for our peninsula drive!)

On our way back we spotted a ewe and her twin lambs which I was able to photograph. Thank you Mrs. Ewe! So cute.

We headed out of Dunedin to Omaru, and arrived in the dark. I wasn't fussed about staying at the Top 10 Holiday Park, and even though Omaru looks like a fascinating place because of all of its old architecture, we decided to keep going. We were going to find a rest area, but instead we found a camper park set up on farmland run by an Aussie. It was right near the beach (although we couldn't see it in the dark) and for $NZ25/night for a powered site, we took it. We had bought BBQ'd chicken legs as we left Dundein and had munched on those as we travelled along as an early dinner, (très délicieux!), so we just had a small snack of toasted 'pain au levain' and brie for supper and I had a desert of raspberries and cream. Woopsie!

Ian taking photos of me taking photos of the church

Said 'church'

Dunedin railway station

Larnach Castle

Ducks in the garden at Larnach Castle

I am SO a Albatross!!

Mrs Ewe and her twins

Sunset as we were leaving Dunedin

Day 18 Friday (19/08/2011)

2011-09-23T11:06:00.000+10:00

That's a much better sleep. So much warmer too. Awake early and Ian had a look out the door to an apricot dawn over the harbor and remarked if I didn't want to take photos of it I must REALLY not like Bluff! I had a look and quickly got dressed as it WAS very pretty and very tempting to try and capture. The seagull put on a gorgeous display for me and I think I've ended up with some beautiful shots.

We are going at about 9am, but not really. A few more pics of a couple of old houses and buildings (I am actually starting to enjoy Bluff - it's quite unique), a trip up the hill for a magnificent 360 degree view of the whole area (more photos) and THEN we leave town.

We took the Southern Scenic Route which was more coastal/rural than barrelling along the highway. We stopped at Curio Bay where there was a petrified forest set in the rock plateau along a spectacular cliffy coastline. Apparently penguins sometimes come up here, but only in the last couple of hours of the day. Unfortunately we have to keep moving, so no penguins for us.

Driving along we saw a sign, cafe & coffee. Niagara Falls Cafe. Easily tempted! This place looked nothing from the outside but was so warm and inviting on the inside, with HUGE windows all along the western wall letting the warm winter sun shine in, lovely tables and chairs in deep brown wood and timber floors. The coffee was really good and we shared a yummy slice; Chocolate, Apricot and Almond. I'm going to try to find that recipe when I go home!

We had lunch at about 3pm and kept on until we arrived at Dunedin at about 4:45pm. Straight to the city and Ian got directions from a local to get to the camper park. (Dunedin Holiday Park) A quiet night (have there been any other?). We had our Chicken Leek and Pasta with White wine sauce meal again for dinner. I'm feeling totally flat. Maybe the thought of our lovely holiday coming to an end, or I don't like the city, OR, I'm tired. So goodnight!

Seagulls at Bluff Sunrise

Bluff overlooking the harbor

Overlooking Bluff harbor

Petrified forest at Curio Bay

The Cafe at Niagara Falls

Yay! Dunedin

Coming into Dunedin

Day 17 Thursday (18/08/2011)

2011-09-21T08:26:00.000+10:00

Such a bad nights sleep. I'm sick of the back dining area bed. So uncomfortable, full of bumps and ridges where all the bits of cushions join. Back to the bed over the cab tonight Ian!

Toast and tea for breaky, a quick shampoo for me, organise ourselves and check out of the park just before 10am. Heading to Invercargill today having no idea what to expect. The first part of our trip was white snow everywhere, mountains, fields, blue lakes, blue sky, so stark and spectacularly beautiful. We stopped several times for photos, and passed through several small towns (some of them just dots on the map) until we arrived at Five Rivers Station Cafe. This was the turn-off to Milford Sound and we had stopped here on our last trip. It hadn't changed a bit in that time. It was 11:40am, close enough to lunch time for us to get a pie each, about the cheapest thing on the menu for $NZ5. If you added gravy and mashed potato to your pie, it pushed the price up to a whopping $NZ14! No thanks. Or you could get a Five Rivers Station burger for a measly $NZ25. What the? Do people regularly pay these prices? Anyway, back to the pies. Ian tried the Venison which he said he liked, and I had the Chicken, Bacon and Mushroom. Not a good choice. What was the meat I was eating? Not chicken, but maybe big chunks of bacon? So much bacon it should have been called the Old Pig Pie. Yuk! The top of the pie pastry was its ONLY redeeming feature as it was nice and flaky with grilled cheese on top, and for that the total score was 2 1/2 out of 10!!! We got take-away coffee and left the snow behind us. The countryside became less and less snow-covered until it was once again green grassy pastures filled with pregnant ewes or ewes with their newborn lambies.

We arrived at Invercargill at about 2:30pm and we spotted a Countdown store straight away. We bought milk, chicken, mixed nuts, onions and juice. We drove through Invercargills main streets from one side to the other. Big wide streets that seemed to be struggling to come to terms with life in the present. A lot of the buildings looked like they were in a time warp from about fifty years ago. On the other side of town we spotted a Pak-n-Save so we pulled in to get yoghurt and red wine. We couldn't get the Clearwater yoghurt here either and it also seemed strange that in both these large supermarkets there was no wine section as had been available in every other town. It was weird, but this town was giving me a creepy feeling, spiritually, and before I said anything Ian also remarked that he felt something odd about the town too. Let's get outta here and go straight to Bluff!

Bluff; the furthest southern point of New Zealand's south island (excluding Stewart Island); 22kms away and famous for its oysters. But not for us. Oyster season was over! Boo hoo! So we booked into the towns small camper park operated by the honesty system at $NZ38 per night with power and free washing machines. A little expensive for a place like this I thought, but it was well equipped with showers, toilets and kitchen facilities. We did our washing and hung it in the wind, then off to try the chips and blue cod (which is also supposed to be the 'best in the world'?) It was okay. Maybe I have nothing to compare it with or maybe I'm not a fish connoisseur. I sure wouldn't come back to Bluff just for the fish n' chips or the scenery! Interesting, but I'll feel happier back on the road again tomorrow. This place is depressing! I forgot to mention the extremely large Masonic Hall at Invercargill!!!

Trying to leave Queenstown without too many stops!

Too irresistible!

The white, white countryside

Bluff camper park

'Sorry no oysters'???

The Blue Cod and chips were a tasty treat at the southern most tip of the South Island

Day 16 Wednesday (17/08/2011)

2011-09-20T14:09:00.001+10:00

It was -4C overnight.

Ian's comment, "Another day in lazy-town." (That's if you don't go jet-boating, paragliding, tandem-skydiving, skiing, snowboarding, river rafting, mountain climbing or trail walking!!)

Campervan ablutions this morning. (Joy.) It gave Ian the challenge of putting on the snow chains which he said was fun! Strange man. Well it looks like McCafe coffee for morning tea, maybe another Ferg's pie for lunch?

Our plan went well; even better than well. We had our coffee and went in search of a bakery as Ian has been in search of a good bakery the whole trip. I spotted a French Patisserie (Les Alps) and was game enough to go in for a look. Oh wow! Délicatesses non imaginables! I bought the St. Honore ($NZ7.20), which was a choux pastry filled with French custard and cream with some kind of toffee glaze! Fantastique! Magnifique! What more can I say to convey that it was very YUM (my new favorite word) and worth every cent! We filled in some time looking for some small souvenirs for friends before heading to a bakery in town that we'd spotted. I'm afraid the pies looked rather lacking compared to Ferg's and I really wanted Ian to have the best because of that gorgeous pastry I had just eaten. So he had the Ferg's Thai Chicken pie (me too) and a Pork sausage roll. He favoured the pie. Then we went for a nice long relaxed walk along the banks of Lake Wakatipu again, taking in the beautiful scenery, the paragliders, and the water with it's glossy reflections, boats, ducks and seagulls. Then up the hill to the camper park for (haha) afternoon coffee and a fresh batch of scones. Early showers and unwind from all the days hard work!

Bacon and egg burgers for dinner tonight and early to bed. Wednesday night TV in NZ is pretty bad. It's expected to be -6C overnight tonight! Brrrrr............ We are leaving tomorrow.

Our lovely McCafe coffees

Me enjoying my très délicieux St Honore

Ian and I relaxing and enjoying the amazing scenery

Ian and I making scones and coffee in the camp kitchen

Day 15 Tuesday (16/08/2011)

2011-09-19T08:46:00.000+10:00

No more snow falling this morning, but some must have fallen through the night as there was about another 2"s or so on top of yesterdays snow. The sun was peeping out and already everything starting to thaw out and go slushy. We actually slept in; must be the cold! Finished our breaky and morning routine by 10am and then headed into town with camera and tripod to do a bit more 'snow' sightseeing and photography, this time around the lake. I think it's Lake Wakatipu.

First we stopped while I set up the tripod to take pics of the Queenstown residences with their icing rooftops and snowy pine tree backdrops. So pretty. My fingers were frozen within minutes. No wonder, as I think we had a high of 5C today. Then to traverse the snow and slush and icy path to town. The lake was so beautiful! Lots of children building snowmen and people feeding the ducks and seagulls. Lots of sightseeing activity going on. We took our shots and then back to the main street for our Ferg's pie for lunch. Ian had Chicken Carbonara and I had Thai Chicken. Again faultless!! 10/10. Now that's what I call a pie! Beautiful fresh crunchy flaky pastry, just the right thickness and buttery flavour, brimming full with creamy Thai chicken chunks and sauce. And it was golden and pretty, felt heavy in my hand. Yep, perfect! If I had a pedestal, I would have put it on one, instead I ate it!!! hehe.

I realised I had a headache coming on and thought a coffee would help, so we headed for our regular McCafe coffees and we also shared a Hazelnut Caramel Slice. (Not highly recommended.) Then we went for a walk along the lakeside past the docks. Very pretty with the snow right to the water almost. The sun was out and the light was so bright. I'm not sure if it was the glare, taking photos or dehydration, but my headache was massive now, so we headed back to the camper. I downloaded my new photos straight away to see what I had captured and was pretty pleased with many of them. I couldn't fight with this headache anymore and had to go to bed for a rest while Ian went to the chemist and got me some Panadol Back and Neck pills (the same as the Panadol Osteo). Two of those, a nice cup of tea, a bit more rest and I was good again.

Early showers before it got too cold, then we re-visited the Chicken Tikka Marsala again for dinner. This time I cooked. Yummy dinner, boring telly makes for a good reason to get an early night. Oh, not to mention the butt-freezing cold!!! as opposed to nice cosy warm bed.

On the edge of Lake Wakatipu

Ian carrying my tripod for me

Dockside, Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown

The SS Earnshaw coming in

Likely lads at Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown

Day 14 Monday (15/08/2011)

2011-09-15T19:07:00.000+10:00

Snow, snow, beautiful snow EVERYWHERE!!! It was cold and all our curtains were closed to keep the cold of the night OUT and the warm in. It was quiet and it had been all night. That's the funny thing about snow, it's quiet, unlike rain of course, so it kinda sneaks up on you. Ian opened the curtain beside our bed, and said, "Oh my goodness!" I looked out to a white beautiful winter scene with snow falling by the bucketload. Amazing for us to see. Thank you Lord for answering my prayers, and I know my friend Jo, you said you'd pray for lots of snow too. Thanks. lol. So, tea and toast for breaky while we watched the snow gently falling and building up thick layers over everything outside.

After breaky and dishes, we headed into town to check out all the action. People everywhere taking photos, kids building snowmen, young guys having snowball fights and also skiing down the street. We had our usual coffee at McCafe. Huge coffees and nice too. Parts of the street where the snow had been compacted to ice made it pretty slippery in places, but we managed to stay on our feet. We went and looked at the waterside and like I've said since Canada, 'to make everything pretty, just add snow'.

Then we made our way to the little supermarket for bread, yoghurt, butter bacon, bread rolls, tissues, loo paper and chips. (Not in any order of importance!) Then home for lunch, but of course we had to take photos all the way back; Ian even videoed me making my first ever snow angel! I stayed out a bit longer to take a few more pics. So irresistible!

We made bacon and egg burgers for lunch. Yum yum! We'll be having those again. Toasted just the base of the bun, butter, lettuce, fresh tomato, bacon and egg of course and caramilised onions left over from last nights dinner. A nice lazy afternoon which included attempting to build a snowman for the grandchildren. (In videos and photos.) Not so easy!!! The afternoon got colder so we had early showers and dinner. Yes, I know, we're always eating!!! Ian made chicken Tikka Masala which was AMAZING!! Then a quiet night of telly.

The scene from our window in the morning

The camper park blanketed in snow

NOT my snowman. Made by a 10 year old girl! Mine was not quite so professional looking.

Downtown Queenstown and the view from McCafe

The Mall, Queenstown

Day 13 Sunday (14/08/2011)

2011-09-15T10:11:00.001+10:00

We woke up to look at a couple of clouds, some blue sky. Cup of tea and breaky in bed while the clouds and breeze built up and then FINALLY...... snow flurries!!! (Fine snow). We lay in bed having good talks together, honest and close. So relaxing and lovely to be able to slow life down enough to do this.

The day is getting greyer, so Ian booked us in for two more days, as travelling in the weather forecast would be silly and dangerous. So, basic chores this morning (sewerage dump, water refill, empty grey water) before walking into town to the i place to see if there's any more (gentler) walks we can do. That's the plan. Snow flurries all morning. Hope it gets heavier! hehe

Nope! It didn't go to plan. We wandered around in the freezing cold and fun flurries looking in shops for nothing. Ian finally found a book he liked. I checked out some wool but too expensive anyway. We had coffee and muffin at McCafe to get the free wi-fi but it was down! One coffee was a freebie and we shared a muffin so it only cost us $NZ5 anyway. We bummed around till lunch-time chatting to the lady at the bookstore for a while. She was born at Invercargill and said don't bother going there. Ha.

We chose to have Fergburgers for lunch. The line-up was long 'as usual'. These burgers must be good!! I couldn't make up my mind so I just told Ian to choose two; we'd split them and taste both. We raced back to the camper to eat them in warmth and comfort. Our prizes were the Southern Swine and the Little Lamby. Both were very delicious. One of the main flavours was a tomato relish which tastes identical to the recipe passed down from my grandmothers and my mum.

We relaxed in the camper for the rest of the day with the snow flurries getting more and more frequent, so by the evening there was a lovely blanket of snow over everything. Ian read while I did some photo-processing. Dinner was the remainder of our salmon with caramelised onions, brussel sprouts, and microwave baked potato with brie. A bit of telly and early to bed to GET WARM!!!!

This is how I stayed warm today. Besides underwear; a singlet, thermals (top and bottom), three pairs of socks, jeans, a long sleeved shirt, a jumper, a jacket and a wind jacket, ugg boots and a beanie. Yep, nice and cosy!

Snow flurries starting

The mall, Queenstown

Outside the famous Ferg's. Look closely, the shop inside is packed with customers.

Inside Ferg's (where all the magic happens)

Day 12 Saturday (13/08/2011)

2011-09-12T11:55:00.000+10:00

So, the plan for today? Breakfast, then hit the Queenstown markets. There wasn't many stalls, but what there were, were very nice and arty. Handmade jewelry, mostly, some ceramics, photography etc. Ian bought me this gorgeous necklace (from Ayelet, thanks Ayelet) and we bought a necklace each for our daughter and daughters-in-law.

Then home for lunch; just an egg and salad sanger. A nice relax for a couple of hours, then we HAVE to (Ian is pushing this idea!) walk the Tiki trail up to the Skyline Gondola Restaurant and Cafe. Now I've been up the mountain on the gondola and know how high and how steep that mountain is! I KNOW this is going to be hard. My fear is that I get halfway up, get utterly exhausted and can't go up OR down!!! We get to the base ready to start and Ian realises he hasn't got his phone, so at my suggestion, I start up the hill while Ian goes back to get his phone. I can't believe it. It is so scary and steep; I can hardly see the path (because it's just a scant dirt track in places) and I'm terrified of falling. I'm scrambling over rocks, practically crawling, clinging to every tree and rock I can find. Can someone please tell me why there is a group of small Japanese children with a twenty year old teacher happily descending like it's a walk in the park??? Ian finally caught up to me after about twenty minutes. It took another grueling (for me) whinging, painful sixty minutes to get to the top, and yep it was just like I thought; halfway up I didn't want to finish, but I COULDN'T go back down..... waaaaaaahhhhhh!

It was good to get to the top and I really enjoyed my caramel/choc ice-cream as a reward. Thanks Ian, so kind! I took photos of The Remarkables; almost missed the sunset. It wasn't as pretty as last time and I had a 70-300mm lens last time so was able to get a bit closer to the subject then. Oh well. Anyway, we totally enjoyed the free ride down in the gondola. Fun!

We walked over to the Winter Sports Expo - boring (sorry to all you people mad on winter sports). We walked through town on our way home and decided to buy dinner because we saved money walking up the hill. Hmmm, everyone is always lined up outside Fergburger... well.... for Ferg's burgers and we would have tried one but there was such a huge lineup! What is it with these burgers??? Are they the best in the world or something??? Nextdoor is Ferg's Pies - next best option peut-être? Ian tried the Beef and Stout pie and I had the Mince and Cheese pie. I'm convinced! Yum! This is a 10/10 pie, no question and it's not even chicken! The chicken was SOLD OUT!!!

FREEZING COLD!!! Home to warm camper, showers and telly, cups of tea and coffee, Mars Bars and scones! haha.

Ian and I find it so funny that we see all these people hobbling around on crutches or with their arms in slings. Snow sports are obviously pretty dangerous going by the high percentage of the population here with injuries.

Ian catching up to me on the Tiki Trail to the Skyline Gondola Restaurant and Luge

The view from the Tiki Trail. Look how high we are! Eeek!

The way was made a little more treacherous because of ice and snow on the path

Sunset view of The Remarkables

Day 11 Friday (12/08/2011)

2011-09-11T13:33:00.000+10:00

Not sure that the AC works that well, but Ian and three doonas keeps me nice and toasty! Another cosy sleep and a luxurious sleep-in today as we had NO plans except relax. Not even photos today. Just strolling, looking in a few shops, eating, more strolling and more eating. Did I mention we did a lot of eating on this trip? We went down to the docks to look at the water and saw scaffolding being built for a snowboarding/skiing competition being held tonight. (Oh, now we realise why there are so many people here in Queenstown. It's the 2011 Winter Games; the second biggest winter sports event outside the Winter Olympics!) We had coffee at Cafe 111 before we went back to the camper.

Lunch was more fresh salmon with Brie, lettuce, tomato and Dijon mustard on French bread. Yeah.... tasty. Now... time to catch up on some dishes, internet and a bit of baking. haha. Ian did the dishes and internet while I made scones in the park kitchen oven. The weather reports don't look great for travel. We're supposed to go on Sunday, but it might be snowing! We'll make a decision whether we can leave or not on Sunday morning. At 5:30pm we rugged up as snug as possible to walk downtown to get some dinner and watch the competition. We stayed to see the first round (see Ian's pics) but it was soooo freezing!!! My hands are frozen, it is so cold! We bought a bacon, cheese and onion burger with beef patty, BBQ sauce and mustard for $NZ5 each. Once again, yummy.

Hmmm, what next? Home for coffee and chocolate!!! What can I say? It must be the cold weather. We set the bed up early to snuggle and get warm. We've spent most nights sleeping above the cabin of the camper, but we've changed to the back bed to have a bit more room. I'm not sure which is warmer.

Note: I DID say no photos today, but we took just a couple with Ian's iphone and the little P&S Canon.

Lake Wakatipu and The Remarkables with the 'long white cloud'

Ian and Ronnie: Queenstown tourists

The snowboarding/skiing competition

Freezing Queenstown by night

Day 10 Thursday (11/08/2011)

2011-09-10T09:31:00.001+10:00

We didn't want to get out of our cosy cocoon this morning! Frozen everything again!! A quick cup of tea and on the road again. We stopped at Twizel (what a pretty name for a town) for breaky and picked up a few things at the Foursquare supermarket before heading off again on our way to Wanaka. When we got to the turnoff and checked our map, we realised we didn't have to go to Wanaka at all, so we headed to Queeenstown. Of course we took a few photos on the way; scenic shots of mountains sprinkles with icing sugar snow, green lakes with orange coloured trees, snowy mountains reflected in blue lakes, and a couple of glamour cows! Just the usual!

Forgot to mention that after Twizel we saw a Salmon Farm (High Country Salmon) with some for sale so we pulled in out of interest. The lady sold us a lovely fresh 1kg piece for $NZ24. We cooked some up as soon as we booked in to the Lakeside Holiday Park in Queenstown. It was divine! Then we went for a walk around town to get a coffee, found some T-shirts for the kids, free internet with our $NZ5 'coffee and muffin' deal at McCafe. Back to the park for washing and drying clothes and making use of our POWER!!! We paid $NZ108 for 3 nights and that was with 10% discount for staying longer than 2 days. The air-conditioner was put to good use although it didn't make the van toasty warm as I'd hoped. Ian assured me however that it was really freezing outside!!

On our way here, when we passed through Lindis Pass Scenic Reserve, Ian decided to try and climb one of the smaller hills we've been passing all the time. It had patchy snow on it and proved more slippery than Ian had thought. So rather than risk injury he gave it a miss. Those hills don't look that big or steep, but they are very deceptive.

Where's Wally?

New Zealand's Miss Glamour Cow 2011

Just past the High Country Salmon farm, outside Twizel

Ian's photo of me taking photos

Snow-capped mountains, lake, reflections. The usual.

Amazing reflections.

Day 9 Wednesday (10/08/2011)

2011-09-09T11:48:00.001+10:00

We woke at 7:30am, Ian wanting to sleep in till 8! Goodness me! Are we on holidays or something? Once up, we realised that all our pipes were frozen!! A bit of a chilly night. We thought it was getting cold at night when we started breathing out copious steamy breaths, and to stay warm, we load on our clothes, beanies, gloves and snuggle together under a doona and drink hot drinks while we read our books. Tonight will be the same. We don't have gas heating as we did last time we did a trip in a campervan. This time, even though on board heaters were advertised, there is only an air-conditioner which works when hooked up to powered sites! Big thumbs down Apollo!!!

We had bacon and eggs for breaky after the usual photo session of beautiful reflections of snowy mountains on crystal blue lakes, black swans with their cygnets etc. Ho hum... haha.

Then we drove a short distance to the Mt Johns Observatory for Sky and Earth. A 4km upward winding drive from the entrance was rewarded with MORE spectacular views and of course more photos. Its just irresistible!

We left Lake Tekapo realising we'd forgotten to go and see the little church on the lake. What a shame, but too late to go back. On to Mt. Cook. We pulled up at a rest area beside yet another pretty lake and had our normal breaky (muesli) for lunch as it was just a quick stop. We pulled in to the motor camp halfway to Mt. Cook (Glentanner) to check out the facilities and prices, but $NZ37/night for power or $NZ33/night for unpowered was just a bit too much. Its probably what we'll be paying in Queenstown though. We drove the remaining 25kms or so to the Mt. Cook village and found a parking spot. We went for a short walk and talked to the 'i place' lady at the Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Centre (for ants). She was really helpful and friendly and suggested that the walk to Kea Point Lookout would give huge rewards and would take us about 2 hours return. Normally it would take less than that, but the track was completely snowed over. Ooooh, snow! And lots of it! She also said the DOC camps were closed because of avalanches, but they had opened up the Governor's Public Shelter for campervans for the DOC fee of $NZ6/per person/per night. We decided to stay the night.

It was about 2:30pm when we set off for our walk that would take us closer to Mt. Cook and the floating glacier and great photo ops. It was a GREAT, hard walk through hard, crunchy snow, with the promised reward at the end. I felt like my legs were going to fall off though, hard going for a very unfit ME! We did jog for part of the way back for fun though. I was carrying my heavy camera bag all the way, while Ian carried the tripod. We were totally exhausted but very happy to have done it.

4:30pm. Right, park the camper, set up for the night. Early showers (cos we know it's gonna be butt-freezingly cold tonight!), so while the water is heating, I made 4 scones in the cast iron pot. 1 cup flour, 2 tspn baking powder, 1 egg, sultanas and the rest of the cream made perfect scones. I preheated the pot on high gas, plopped in the 4 bits of dough, turned the heat down to medium, lid on, then waited for 20 mins. Voila! 4 puffy scones!! Mmmm.... coffee and scones before nice hot showers. Then to organise dinner. Chicken thighs cut up and cooked, onions fried, and make a gravy. Bung them on fresh bread with loads of butter! Mmmm.... too good for the rich people!!! Relax for the evening. Day 9 done and dusted!

We heard a strange sound later in the night before we went to bed. Ian reckoned the Kea's were back. I opened the door (with torch in hand) and was surprised to find two ducks (Paradise ducks), one brown, one with a white head asking politely for some crumbs. They were quite fat too I might add. They seemed happy with 1/4 slice of bread each and wandered off into the darkness.

Lake Alexandrina reflections

The view from Mt Johns observatory

Me, having a little rest in the snow on the walk to Kea Point Lookout
(the snow was actually very hard)

Ian and I with Mt Cook and the floating glacier in the background

Day 8 Tuesday (9/08/2011)

2011-09-08T15:12:00.002+10:00

Our body clocks seem to wake us at about 7am, sun or no sun. There was no sun at 7am this morning as it was trying to rise over a dirty great big hill! Good op for a sunrise photo, so up and dressed before the body gets a chance to get cold. (Even though it was freezing when we went to bed last night, we slept toasty warm with our thermals and three doonas.)

We had a beautiful riverbed with water, snow on the mountains and rising sunshine. Hope I get some good pics! We had a quick cuppa to warm our hands up before we left for our next destination, Mt. Hutt. We didn't have breaky until about 10am again as we made a few short stops for photos in between. Breaky was our muesli and beautiful yoghurt outside a place called Glentunnel. There was lots of frost heavy on the shaded ground. We drove on to Mt. Hutt... and PASSED IT!!!! Where was Mt. Hutt? It was just a spot on the map (literally), but the area of Mt. Hutt is big on skiing. So we kept on going to Geraldine. We bought more yoghurt at a roadside shop that we had stopped at last trip. (It turned out they sold me out of date yoghurt! Thumbs down!)

We also had our usual walk up and down the main street and then bought bacon, sultanas, chips and red wine (for Ian) at the supermarket before we headed off to find a spot to cook bacon and egg burgers for a late lunch. We couldn't find a suitable place to stop, so we ignored our grumbling stomachs and continued on until we reached Lake Tekapo. We asked at the 'i place' and found out there was a DOC (Department of Conservation) camp at Lake Alexandrina about 15 mins out of town. It is such a beautiful, tranquil spot. A golden sunset shining over the lake with snow-capped peaks as a backdrop. We feel so blessed that God is leading us to these free/almost free spots that are so natural, wild and beautiful.

As soon as we got out of the van, two ducks waddled over and DEMANDED food. They quickly snatched half a slice of bread each and set up camp outside our door.

After a few photos, it was inside for coffee and scones. Early showers while a chicken stew cooked in our new little cast iron pot purchased from a tiny town second hand shop just outside Geraldine. The lady running the shop was totally NOT like the man at Murchison!! She was so lovely. We bought the pot for $NZ10, a little blue and white ginger pot for $NZ4 and she threw in a novel for Ian as well! Sweet!

I forgot to mention that just after our purchases at the 2nd hand shop, a bit down the road, we saw a little shop in the middle of nowhere with a sign, 'coffee-to-go'. Yep, we had to turn around and go back for that coffee! As the lady was serving us, she mentioned that they'd had two lambs born last night. Ian asked if I could possibly take photos and she readily agreed to walk me over to them! I got some cute photos and felt so blessed to have that opportunity.

Sunrise at the reserve near Arthur's Pass

The sheep with her twin lambies

The beautiful spot where we camped at Lake Alexandrina

Ian and the demanding ducks

Day 7 Monday (8/08/2011)

2011-09-07T13:09:00.002+10:00

Up at 7am for a cuppa and head off to Greymouth. THAT was our plan. We drove for a while and saw an alternate route to Arthurs Pass where we didn't have to go through Greymouth. From what I remember from our last NZ trip, Greymouth was not a place I desperately wanted to see again anyway. So we took the Tourist Route. Not long into this drive Ian spotted another young guy hitching a lift. THIS time we pulled over and gave him a ride. I wasn't going to miss my opportunity to show God I'd learned my lesson and be obedient. (for the rest of our holidays we never saw another hitchhiker) He was only going 25 minutes to Jackson's, which was on our way. His name is Jamie Mackay. We had a great chat with him and dropped him off to his farm just outside Jackson's, but not before we gave him our details and said 'If you're ever in Oz...' When we came to Jackson's Tavern, I realised it was one of the places I'd had a chicken pie last trip; one of the better pies too! But alas, it was closed. Closed Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday in Winter!!! What the??? Time check Ian? 9:58am. Oh well, press on to Arthurs Pass. We arrived around lunchtime but not before we gave all our water to a guy who was overheated at the top of the range. He was so grateful he offered Ian some weed! Haha. Ian knocked back his kind offer.

At the Pass we bought a chicken, cranberry and brie pie for me and a mince pie for Ian. Our lunch. Scores on the pie? Pastry; getting there, nice and flaky, but not brill, 6/10. Filling; not enough of it for a start, the chicken was nice, and I could taste a hint of brie in places, but where was the cranberry?, 6/10. Overall? The pie looked like and under-stuffed overstuffed couch. It looked okay and tasted okay, but that's all. No 'wow' factor for me there, 6/10.

We checked out the little reserve where we stayed last time, and practised putting on snow chains. A bit tricky, but a bloke who was taking his kids to see the snow gave us a demo. Thanks man! We drove a few km's down the road and found a nice place to park near the river and with a beautiful view of snow-capped peaks. I painted a 'not-too-shabby' watercolour for a beginner, and Ian did some exercise. He followed that with a quick rinse in the icy stream (captured on video of course!)

Chicken, leek and white wine sauce to go with pasta again tonight for dinner. Then the usual relax, reading before sleep.

I forgot to mention that a native NZ bird (parrot), the Kea lives in these high altitudes. There were plenty of them so tame and looking for food from all the tourists. We had an encounter with a very friendly Kea who was waiting for us at a lookout and posed nicely for me on the side-view mirror. When we parked our van for the night, one of them waited right outside the door, calling out every now and then. When we didn't respond, he found a spot so he could watch us through the campers rear window. They are very clever and very CUTE!

Arthurs Pass tunnelly thing

Ian practising snow chains

The Kea who came to visit us

Day 6 Sunday (7/08/2011)

2011-09-06T12:24:00.001+10:00

This morning we had TOAST! and eggs in the kitchen at the campsite. I charged my laptop and camera up again while we chatted to Cameron McNee and Claudia. They were travelling to Auckland from Queenstown.

It rained gently most of last night, but it was lovely and fine in the morning. We headed back to Nelson to see if the markets were on again so I could get a necklace I saw yesterday but forgot to buy. The markets today were more the Trash 'n Treasure type; people trying to sell old junk for $'s. We looked for a nice bakery, but in the end, went back to Countdown and bought sultana scones and muffins (of the most fattening kind!) The supermarket car park adjoined the library, so we made use of their free wi-fi internet while we had tea and scones in the camper! How cool is that? Gotta love technology.

We spent the morning walking around a close to town suburb taking photos of some of the beautiful quaint cottages in Nelson. They are so very pretty. Also we had parked right in front of Nelson's Queens Gardens so we went for a nice stroll through them as well.

We set off for Greymouth at 2:30pm with patchy rainy weather. Some way along the way we passed a young hitchhiker. However the further we got away from him, the worse I felt. He was wet from the rain and looked a bit strange. Fear and selfishness, along with judgement are not good qualities for a Christian to possess! It may have been 15 or 20 kms from where we passed him, but after a lot of conviction in my spirit (to the point of tears) we decided to turn back. He was nowhere in sight, so hopefully (please God) he got a lift and is safe and sound tonight. I really had to pray for forgiveness and repent of my attitude, and still now I feel terrible that I didn't have compassion for that young man.

We arrived at a place called Murchison. Ian's workmate had noted for us (on a map) that this small town has the highest % of single mothers in New Zealand! We saw a very interesting shop full of bric-a-brac, so we thought we'd check it out. We asked the old Dutchman if he had any cast iron pots. He bought out two. One was an old Le Creuset for $NZ18 that we said we'd take. Ian asked if he'd throw in a novel as well for that price, but the old guy was pretty abrupt with his reply. He became even ruder and aggressive, swearing and shouting abuse. Needless to say, we left without buying the pot! Strange, cranky old man. No wonder his shop is jam-packed; no-one buys anything!

We bought potato wedges and hoki at a local cafe, fuelled up and refreshed our amenities before heading off in the dark. We are now about 60-80 kms out of Greymouth, parked in a reserve for the night.

Nelson has some very pretty houses

Ian enjoying a break at Queens Gardens, Nelson

Ducks Bum

Day 5 (6/08/2011)

2011-09-05T09:21:00.002+10:00

Up at 7am again this morning. We woke to a pretty fog in the hills and trees so of course we took the obligatory photos before a quick breaky. We said goodbye to Alfred's Reserve and then we headed the 50km toward Nelson. Most of the trip was up and down ranges covered in forestry pines. We stopped to take a couple of quick pics at a little mountain stream on the way.

Nelson is another harbour/port city; very historic going by the looks of it. We found some good parking and decided to have a good stroll around the centre of town. We bought some little things for the grandies, and then discovered the markets. There were lots of local arts and crafts, jams, breads, cheeses, toys, clothing, spices, pickles etc and we came away with SF sourdough (?) to compare it with mine, lovely white cheese and three bottles of farm made jam (Moutere Gold), raspberry, boysenberry and blueberry. Yum! These purchases made such a gourmet lunch for us to have in our camper. Spoiling ourselves rotten!

Hmmm.... to leave Nelson or not to leave? I felt Nelson had more to offer.We found a supermarket (Countdown this time) and re-stocked a bit and we also re-fuelled at the Shell across the road. It didn't take much driving to discover the foreshore, so we found a nice place to park and had a cuppa overlooking the water. There was this rock out in the water, which I later discovered was called Fifeshire Rock. It became the main target of a million sunset photos over the little bay area and Tahunanui Beach. I hadn't seen anything so beautiful in a very long time, if ever. What a blessing! So lovely to see this sight while walking along with my gorgeous man on the most magnificent afternoon in Nelson. Are we finally relaxing?

Thai take-aways for dinner, then we tracked down a cheap camping site just out of town for $NZ12 for the night. Perfect!

Australia versus New Zealand in the rugby tonight. No TV, only radio. Australia lost! Who were you barracking for Ian? "Aussie" he said. WOW! That's strange.

Morning misty view from Alfred's Reserve, Rai Valley

The little stream on the way to Nelson.

Main street, Nelson

Fifeshire Rock, beautiful sunset

Day 4 (5/08/2011)

2011-09-04T13:53:00.000+10:00

I woke early with the sun almost risen and decided to get up to take some photos of the sun rising over the ocean. Ian got up as well and after our expedition, and a quick breaky, we left Ward's beach to head towards Picton. This town is the ferry point to travel between the South and North islands of New Zealand and is scenic in that it's filled with boats, the huge ferries, and lots of other ocean going vessels and yachts. Picton was pretty but looked expensive. We bought take away coffee and headed along the Queen Charlotte Sound drive to Havelock. We found a lovely spot along the way overlooking the water and had salad sandwiches for lunch. (It is so great to be able to pull over in the camper wherever a beautiful scene can be found, and make cups of tea/coffee, have morning/afternoon tea, and also be able to use your own loo!)

Havelock, famous for green shelled mussels was very 'fishy' looking (as in fishing town). We didn't buy the live mussels, but settled for a tub of 'ready-to-eat' ones to go with spaghetti and a nice pasta sauce. We continued on driving to find a spot to 'freedom camp' and found a little town in the Rai Valley called 'Alfred's Reserve' and parked for the night.

Ward's beach, sunrise

Ian taking photos on Ward's Beach

Overlooking Picton

Our lunch view on the way to Havelock

Day 3 (4/08/2011)

2011-09-03T10:20:00.003+10:00

Up at 7am, quickly dressed (cold) and on the road to Kaikoura, a little town noted for fresh crayfish and a seal colony. The road approaching was incredibly scenic, rocky mountains dipping into the Pacific, with, once again, snow-capped peaks in the background. We arrived about 10am and we did the usual walk up and down both sides of the little main street. We had driven right through town at first and found a New World supermarket. Is that Coles? or New World Order? Hmmm? We just bought some more milk (which is surprisingly very expensive compared to Australia and seems strange in a country where dairying in probably the highest or second highest farming industry in New Zealand), more scones and a 6ltr water. Our camper's water supply is not suitable for drinking.

We had a Seafood Basket for lunch which we ate on the foreshore closely watched by the seagulls who were rewarded with our left-overs. While we were waiting in the 'Fush n Chup' shop we munched on a Potato Tornado which is a spiral cut potato on a stick which is then deep-fried. Nice, but not spectacular. Does it seem like I'm following a theme here?

Post lunch we went off to find the seal colony. Well, we found them! They were just lolling about all over the place! Not really regarding all the curious humans busily taking photos of them at all! Very cute and although they look super-cuddily, there are signs warning to not get too close as they can become very aggressive and leave a nasty infected bite! We also took a very steep 5 minute walk up to the lookout on the point after our tea and scone. The view was spectacular in all directions and it was hard to stop taking photos.

We left town to leave for our next destination, Blenheim, and realised we were quite short on fuel and we might not get there! Thankfully we came across a little spot on the map called Ward and were able to fill up. $NZ103 later we were full again!!! Yikes! The fuel depot owner said we could drive out to the coast a short way to Ward's Beach and camp for a donation to the farmer. Herb (said farmer) duly turned up to collect his $NZ5 and gave us a few tips on freedom camping. We were the only campers there and it was so pretty and isolated, we felt very special. We had our first showers in the camper, surprisingly hot and glorious! Bacon and eggs for dinner (yup!) and relax for the evening.

Seal, lolling about at Kaikoura. Doesn't he/she look cuddily?

Ian, lolling about at seal colony, see the seal out back?

Our campervan at Ward's Beach

Day 2 (3/08/2011)

2011-09-02T11:04:00.002+10:00

Brrrr... a bit of a chilly night. It would have been better if I'd remembered to put my socks on! Up at 7:30am, get dressed and leave Balmoral Reserve. We stopped at Culverden for coffee on our way to Hanmer Springs. About 30 minutes later we arrive and find a pretty little tourist trap at the base of snow-capped peaks. We found the tourist 'i place' and they kindly allowed me to charge both my camera batteries.

We did the circuit of the main street on foot and bought water at the local 4square supermarket. Back to the camper for a late breaky. Around lunchtime we tested our first chicken pie from the Hanmer Springs Bakery. The only chicken pie left was a Satay Chicken. That'll have to do. The scores? Out of 10. Pastry - a bit too gluey and stodgy for me, I give it a 4/10. Filling - It was supposed to be Satay right? Just the right amount of chicken, nice flavor, but NOT satay, a bit bland, so I give it also a 4/10. Overall score? Looked boring and pretty much lived up to its looks. Okay, but not memorable. 4/10.

After lunch we walked for 30 minutes uphill to the top of Conical Hill where we were promised 360 views. Pretty but not spectacular! (Bit like the pies.) The walk was very testing, glad on the downhill. (I am totally unfit, and it would probably be a breeze for someone who walks more than my daily 20minutes with a 13 yr old deaf, blind dog!) We arrived back at the camper and had a short break before heading to the famous hot water pools to unwind from the walk. The entry fee for a one-off visit is $NZ18 per person. Soooo glad I was brave enough to don my bikini! The spa was AMAZING!!! and after a pummeling by the very powerful jets we retreated to the 40C natural sulphur pools. Just GLORIOUS!!! Soooo relaxing, languishing in a hot pool under a winter sky beneath a snow covered mountain backdrop. Just a bit special and well worth the money spent. We both took a freezing cold shower at our mid-way point; very invigorating! After 90 minutes we strolled back to our camper and I cooked Creamy Chicken and Leek with Pasta for dinner. Yum!

We didn't want to shell out $24 to stay in a park, so we drove back to Balmoral Reserve (it was on our way anyway) heating the van up nicely on the way. Quick cuppa and to bed for some reading.

Main street, Hanmer Springs, New Zealand

Rest stop on the way up Conical Hill

The pools, soooo relaxing.

Day 1 (2/08/2011)

2011-09-01T12:46:00.000+10:00

I have no idea of the time difference, but I woke at about 7:30am NZ time. We get dressed and organised in time for a 'not-so-amazing' breaky. We took the shuttle back to the airport to make use of the free transfer to Apollo to pick up our campervan. After paying a BLACKMAIL of approx $NZ900 of extra insurance to avoid paying $NZ7500 (you read it right!) liability deposit up front, we left to find the supermarket to stock up. Ian's treats - Vogel's bread, red wine, chips and scones; my treats - beautiful non-homogenized organic yogurt, and orange juice. We were quite surprised by the prices in the supermarket. They seemed high! We decided to head north and inland to Hanmer Springs. Such a pretty drive! Lots of sheep of course on the most gorgeous green hills with snow-covered mountains in the background.

We munched on scones as we drove and as we had left quite late, decided to pull into a rest area for a cuppa and a break. It was so lovely and fresh, peaceful, green, quiet (and also it was 4:30pm) we decided to stay for the night! Only $NZ5 donation too!

Ian cooked Chicken Tikka (maybe not quite like the link) for dinner and we spent the evening reading our books before heading for bed. Well that's the plan as we've just finished dinner.

Just like i said....

Doesn't that look idyllic?

Wanna read about our holidays?

2011-09-01T11:56:00.002+10:00

I've decided to write up the 21 days of our New Zealand holiday for anyone who's interested to read and see some of the pics that might not make it to Flickr.
First Day in New Zealand. 1/08/2011
Arrival at Christchurch International Airport at 10:55pm after a very quiet smooth three hour flight through darkness. Only expensive tea bags and 40g Pringles for snacks. The Airport Gateway Motor Lodge limo was summoned via the free phone in the airport arrivals hall, and we were soon in our warm motel room showering and having coffees before going to bed.

Me and my friends waiting for the bus in Toowoomba

Our plane overtaking an Air New Zealand flight!