Day 15 - on the road again

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we left akaroa in the early am, after hanging out with a couple of staffers the night before. i was hoping to trade in my book in the hostel library, but someone had already taken the one i was eyeing.

we had quite of bit of time to make our flight, so deja spotted a little gallery on the highway on the way up. it's called the lavendale gallery, and is run by the seo family. it's a beautiful property will lots of antiques and fine art -- some of which you can purchase. there's also a field of lavender on the grounds, but it's only just beginning to bloom. they were so friendly there, and even offered a complimentary slice of banana almond cake. if you ever make it down there, i highly recommend stopping in.

we pulled in to christchurch around noon so that deja could exchange his sunglasses. unfortunately he damaged his brand new pair out in hooker valley, so we had to track down a store in town so he could get some new ones under warranty. about an hour later we were returning our dear little nissan sunny to the rental agency and proceeded to the airport. as luck would have it our flight was delayed by a half hour, then another half hour. i think we saw every possible thing there is to see at the christchurch airport in that time.

it was kind of sad to be leaving the south island. we had a lot of fun down there, and a lot of memories: like kev accidentally shifting into reverse out of second gear and stalling the car, the sheep we almost hit on the highway, the lingering bug bites....

it's nice to be on an airline that isn't cheap. our qantas flight offered us drinks and a choice of sandwich or cheese & crackers. mmmm... cheese...

speaking of which, i find the dairy products here really, really rich. all the cheese, milk, butter, etc seems to be very high in fat. mmm.... and they sure love their bacon and eggs! seems like anything you can dream of has an option with bacon. heavenly...

with our late arrival in to auckland, we knew we would be even later pulling in to waitomo. erring on the side of caution, we decided to book a b&b ahead of time. we found a listing for an interesting little place situated on an ostrich farm just outside of otorahanga.

big mistake! while we were able to secure a bungalow unit, we didn't realize what it would be like at night. the whole place was infested by little insects and moths sneaking in through the poor meshing in the bathroom. i didn't sleep a wink -- kept thinking there were bugs crawling over me. and the bathroom was a nightmare in the morning. the walls around the sink and all over the floor were the bodies of hundred of little bugs trapped by the condensation of our showers the night before. oh, and the shower! i was washing bugs out of my hair as they became attracted by my shampoo. bleah!

but to be fair, our hosts were very nice. and their son runs one of the blackwater toobing companies out of waitomo. they offer a 12% discount to guests. just try not to stay in the bungalow if you have the choice!

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