Lewis Pass and Kaikoura

---

To get back to Christchurch we decided to take Lewis Pass as we hadn't driven the whole of this road before. We planned to stay in Hanmer for a few nights before we were due to fly to Australia for a week. Unfortunately we hadn't done our homework and it was the school holidays. There is probably one place in the whole of New Zealand that you would want to avoid in school holidays and its Hanmer Springs! We were only able to book into anywhere for one night so we thought rather than spend a fortune on accommodation there we would move on the next day to Kaikoura where we checked before arriving that we would be able to get a room. While in Hanmer for the night we went back to the hot springs and enjoyed that one last time, even though you had to fight your way into the pools through the hoards of kids.
The next few days were spent in beautiful Kaikoura lazing away the days doing now very much. We booked to stay in the Top 10 Holiday Park and were actually really let down. It didn't help that there were a bunch of chavs staying two doors down who kept eyeing up our car every time they went past, but we wont go into that. Matty was going to do a dive but that didn't materialize due to bad diving conditions. So after 3 nights in Kaikoura we headed south for the comfort of The Hayman's and home baking! Yum!
We were greeted by John and Margaret who had kindly laid out tea and home made cake for us. After a brief catch up with them it was off to the Wallace's for dinner. We do get spoilt when we're back in town! Their sons Chris and Blair were there and Blair's wife and daughter Katie and Hannah were also there. It was really nice to catch up with them all.
The next day we visited a maze that had been made out of a corn field. We managed to lose two hours in there and still didn't manage to find all the notice boards. It was only when we admitted defeat and returned to the office that we saw the missing notice board in the office! Someone had dug it up and been moving it around so they took it out altogether. I wish they had told us before we went in! That evening we treated John and Margaret to a film at the cinema for being such great New Zealand parents once again. When we got back I cooked everyone a curry. It was a really enjoyable evening.

---

Photos

Lewis Pass
An average west coast sky

Lewis Pass
Autumn is upon us