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One more night in Kaikoura in an interesting B&B and a walk along the coast to the seal colony we headed for Hamner Springs. We found a superb motel overlooking the mountains with its own spa pool- with a glass of wine in our hands we had to try it. Later we scared the locals by pedalling a quad bike around the town! Having never ridden a bike and having a poor sense of direction it proved to be an interesting experience! Sandy was much relieved to return in one piece. The locals were strangely scarce on the ground! We recovered by taking a long walk up the neighbouring hill to a lookout with a fantastic view. A hot and challenging climb was rewarded with sensational views! We had been having problems with the camera-technology is not in my reportoire- luckily we were befriended at the top of the climb by an Australian teacher and his family-he patiently explained the problem and put the camera right for us.
Next day we headed for Christchurch. We took the tourist tram around the city - a great little ride and fantastic for people watching! We spotted a French restaurant on our journey and stopped for a meal- any fool can eat New Zealand food! They made a hot chocolate to die for,with 6 marshmallows,2 biscuits and hundreds of milk and white chocolate buttons! Truly full to the rafters we headed back to watch the Australian Open.
The next day we took the bus to the Porthills at the edge of town and took a gondolier ride to take in a fantastic view of the city. A great place for walking, views, and chips. Some one suggested visiting Akoroa so we headed there - a great decision. The journey took us through tte suburbs to a place called Little River- interesting cafes and quirky art galleries, before climbing steadily and unsteadily to the summit of the hills. At the top we stopped to take in a breathtaking view of mountains,lakes and coastline. Then came the sharp descent into Akaroa! We found accommodation and a quirky restaurant called the Pepper Tree. You ordered the meal before sitting down or knowing if you had a table,whilst the menu was being written down on the blackboard- we never got to see the whole thing! A great meal and very inexpensive- probably one of the best meals that we have eaten on the trip.( we returned there on another day and had exactly the same meal again!) We drove to the Hinakui Reserve and did a very strenous walk through the bush, taking in wonderful forest land and exciting waterfalls.The heat and the excercise took its toll and we crawled the last part on our bellies, using our nails to inch the way back to the summit! Hillary eat your heart out this was some climb! Akaroa is a great place- we would love to return again some time. But there is no time to waste when you are on an epic journey around the world- so next day we headed back to Christchurch,en route south.
The journey took us towards the Southern Alps.We took a detour up a side round to look for a lake and found a fantastic hydro electric plant and a quirky place for a coffee( quirky is the theme of this blog).Why a hydro electric plant? who knows- I guess because it was there.By the way we could not find the lake! Having recovered our sanity we headed for the Raikai Gorge, an absolutely beautful river valley with steep mountainous sides.
We passed through a number of wild west towns-the only thing missing were the horses tied up outside the saloon, before stumbling on a lovely place called Geraldine. It has a great place that sells home made hot chocolate and wonderful cakes- a place truly made in heaven! The rest of the town was very nice as well. We headed on into the wilderness to cross Burke's Pass.This is a beautiful but lonely flat land that heads you towards the mountains giving ever changing panoranic views. I raved over the views and stopped so that we could take photos of this wonderful landscape-what did Sandy take photos of? Lupins! She raved about the mountain lupins that lined the road! Every time I mentioned the panorama she whispered"lupins" and took some more pictures. I dragged her back into the car and headed quickly for the next town and smiled indulgently as any mental health physician would when she continued to eulogise on her theme. Finally we arrived at Lake Lupin,I mean Tekapo! I knew that she would take some time to recover when she insisted on calling the place" Lake Take-a - pooh"
Lake T is a beautiful place.The blazing sunshine turned the lake into a turquoise sea-with the snow capped mountains behind, the view took some beating.(Snow?"Yes a typical New Zealand summer.) We found some where to stay- the only room available in the place- this was to become a recurring theme of our stay in N.Z!
Lake Tekapo is a beautiful place, but if you stand still you get trampled by hoards of Japanese and Korean tourists- they have their own restaurants in this small place and English style food exists in only one location! Next to the lake is a great little church called "The Church of The Good Shepherd" and there is a nearby statue of a sheep dog( without which sheep farming would not have been possible)- both are over run with J and K tourists who need their own crowd control dog.
We climbed Mt. John to reach the observatory- quite a climb! The views were stunning with fantastic views over the lakes, mountains and lupin fields. The return trip took nearly 4 hours of steady tramping.
In the evening we had a stunning view of the Mcnaught comet(the skies here are so clear )- the tail was longer than the comet- an incredible sight!
Time to move on to Mount Cook!
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