We left Christchurch the first week in Fegruary and 3 weeks later on February 22nd it was destroyed by an earthquake. This makes this chapter very poignant. The good news was that our friends in Akaroa escaped as did the motel we stayed at.
Quaint, charming and like an English garden. All this is true of Christchurch, New Zealand. However there were a lot of other things that have colored our visit. the buskers were in town and this is their annual convention. Buskers are street performers so on every corner there was gaiety and crowds and laughter and cheering. That tends to brighten the day. The Para-Olympics were going on so we got to salute some of the USA athletes in the square. We rode the old trolley that makes a lovely tour of the downdown so the feet could recover for a moment.
Very English feel
How long has it been since you've seen a phone booth that really works?
Guess who found his favorite store of the whole trip?
About $3500 US. Still a pricey pour.
The Bates motel or a reasonable facsimile of it.
The Botanical Gardens are full of majestic trees. Perfect climate for them to grow.
Kids were on Holiday so they were everywhere. Made us lonesome.
New Zealand bushman toilet paper. Early settlers wrote notes to send home on this leaf when they didn't have paper. Among other uses as indicated by the name.
The title of this is the wrestlers. We are running a contest to see who can come up with a better one. Jon likes, "A grope in the park."
The big story in Christchurch is not the Buskers or the Para-Olympics or the wonderful weather. It is EARTHQUAKES. Last September they had a 7.1, the first one ever recorded and now are told there is a fault under the town. Since then they have had over 4,000, including a 5.1 on Boxing Day and a 4.0 on the morning we we got here. Next day a 3.6. It felt like a truck hit the motel and lasted a second but Jon just had hit the light switch in the bathroom so his first thought was, "What have I blown up now?" The Scotch store people where shocked to find only two broken bottles but the old buildings next to them are ruined.
Oops! Steeple fell off church.
Best part of our day - doing the laundry. Every so often the little things in life matter and this was one of those. We have been rinsing and hanging to dry since we left Singapore. From the super luxury of the Ritz Carlton in Shanghai all through China until we get to Christchurch. In a wonderful motel I found on Trip Advisor we found a washer and dryer for guests use. Oh what luxury. Also for about $125 USD, a night, we got a spacious room and kitchenette with a French press for coffee, clean enough to eat off floors and 5 blocks to the Square. We highly recommend this place. Center Point on Colombo is where to stay when you come this way.
Riding with Rosie
Off to Akoroa. A small French village in a wonderful harbor about an hour or so from Christchurch. Not feeling like driving we arrange for Akaroa Taxi to pick us up. That would be Rosie, a chatty granny, who drove the whole way like she was leading the Monte Carlo Grand Prix. Not too bad except I have this phobia about driving on narrow two lane roads on the side of mountains with no guard rails. As we are screaming around a hairpin turn she says, "No guard rails. Sometimes people need a wee Sherry when we get there." Wonder if she noticed I was white as a ghost and clinging to the seat belt. As if that could save me. Since she has driven this road several times a week for over 50 years I imagine she is amused. Best part is what goes in to Akoroa goes out the same way and that would be us with Rosie.
A short reprieve so we could stop and buy cherries at her favorite fruit stand.
View from up top of the harbor.
Yeah! we are at sea level and off to see the worlds tiniest dolphins, fur seals and we even saw a tiny penguin.
Super kudos to Jon for finding the tiny bird in the middle of a heaving ocean.
We are staying at a most lovely special Inn. Staying here is half the visit to this wonderful place.
http://www.maisondelamer.co.nz/
Little touches like fresh flowers in the room. Perfuming the air with the smell of roses. A breakfast served as if we were visiting gracious lovely friends and they served us a special meal. Gorgeous accommodations, stacks of books to read, rich black chocolate with port to enjoy before bed, classical music wafting through the Inn, bottles of after dinner liquor to enjoy gratis and everything in the mini bar is included. Wine and cheese each evening in the living room. Crawling into bed with freshly ironed sheets, open windows and a cool breeze. Heavenly.
In room coffee service with a french press and local Italian roast coffee. Jon cannot wait to wake up.
The kitchen. Chalkboard paint is the backsplash. What a great idea.
The village
Akaroa is a tiny village settled by a band of French immigrants who arrived just 4 days after the Brits. Score another one for the English language. A temperate climates has turned this into a drunken English garden run amok. Flowers grow rampant everywhere. Fushia as high as the houses, hydrangeas form hedges and fight their way out of stream banks and climb up small bushes. Palm trees and lemon as well as roses rioting like weeds. Bees dance among the blooming lavender. All this nestled in green hills surrounding the gentle blue green Pacific of their peaceful inlet.
One of their favorite landmarks is the work of a local artist and gardener called a mosiac garden. It is quite a sight.
Liz and Bill Devine used to live in Dallas and his family are all Texans.
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| Hydrangeas go wild |
Good sign for best sign contest
Flowers in the garden of the Inn
Rosie got us to the airport so here she is. She is training to ride a bike 360 km this summer in Germany.
We are ending with three days in Auckland and unfortunately we got the tail end of a cyclone so had pouring rain for one day. Today was pretty but we are a bit burned out on big cities. We are using this time to regroup and get ready for Africa. Went to the local food fair for a taste of Aukland today and ate whitebait fritters. Think about dipping a net into a bait bucket and dropping that into pancake batter and frying. Yuck. Local delicacy. Tomorrow we take off to out island by ferry.
We keep running into German couples and on striking up a conversation we find they have been here for 4 weeks or 2 months and this is the 3rd or 5th time they have come to New Zealand. The last couple told us about flying down first class on Emirates and they have showers in the first class bathroom. Since we have been in fairly pricey digs in new Zealand that run $400 to $500 usd, you do the math. Obviously they are not all broke by saving the Euro.
Big news all around seems to be that with new airplanes, Air New Zealand and Continental as well as Quantas will be flying direct this year to Dallas and Houston. That will make it so easy to visit here.
There are only 4 million people in New Zealand so it is not over crowded.
We have visited more big cities than we we usually do and both us find that they are very much the same. To get local color and feel it is imperative to get away from the city.
Last day in Auckland
We got up early and hit the road and walked all over Devonport and took the ferries and walked Auckland because we knew we needed to be exhausted and to go to bed early as we need to get up at 3 AM for our flight to Jo'Berg.
Best laid plans and all that. Somehow we missed the fact that it is Anniversary Day. That is like 4th of July and at 10 PM when we were sound asleep the fireworks went off right outside our hotel window. The room shook like WW 3 and scared us to death. Needless to say sleep was sporadic after that.
Compensation Quantas first class lounge and Iam off for a pedicure and Jon is drinking vintage champagne. Best lounge I have ever seen. Great view of Sydney and a full blown restaurant.
Signing off for a week as we go into no Internet Africa.
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