Final Days in New Zealand

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We’ve mostly been with friends and family since our last blog which is why it’s taken us a while to get round to keeping you updated - it’s so easy to chill and chat over a meal and a bottle of wine with them in the rest periods between touristy things.

Our last blog was from Hokitika (Hoe-cat-icka) on the West coast. From there we drove east to Christchurch through Arthur’s Pass which is noted for its 'fabulous scenery'. In fact, the Trans Alpine Express is a tourist ‘must-do’ because of the 'fabulous scenery'. However, we can only imagine the 'fabulous scenery' because it was pretty much obscured by rain clouds, so we took lots of pictures of wild lupins instead. Arthur’s Pass will be, for us, forever synonymous with lupins. It wasn’t so bad, though, we also took some good pictures of gorse!!

By the time we reached the end of Arthur’s Pass the clouds had lifted a bit, but by then we were nearly back on the Canterbury Plains which, though scenic, don’t have the wow-factor of the wild rugged beauty of the West Coast mountainous regions. If you’ll excuse the pun, it all went a bit flat.

We didn’t do a lot of sightseeing during our two days in Christchurch as we’ve done the touristy things there on our last trip, but I just had to see kiwis again (the animal kind) and we indulged ourselves with much needed massages after all the driving. For our last night we upgraded ourselves to a 5 star motel for added luxury (which was actually cheaper than the previous night’s 4 star motel).

All in all, we loved New Zealand, although it’s getting more expensive for us Brits (not entirely due to the exchange rate, we think).

Our next blog is Sydney and the ‘Astraylians’.

Hope you are all happy and well and not stressing too much about Christmas - Love from A & H xx

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Photos

Harry in Hoe-cat-icka
The weather was closing in, even then.

Arthur's Pass
'Fabulous scenery'

Kea
These are tame bold parrots that sit around tourist sites daring you not to feed them. Photographed from our car window, 3 feet away.

Lupins
An artistic angle, don't you think!

More Lupins
There are mountains somewhere around here.

And some gorse.
It's getting flatter.

Christchurch
Propping up a lamp post.

It's all mine!!!!
Do they really expect one person to eat all this?

A touch of 5 star luxury
It's well worth asking the price, especially if it turns out to be cheaper than 4 star.

Comments

[Diane East]

HI GUYS
Hi ya Harry and Ang, nice to see you are both having a great time and packing it all in. Probably won't get another chance to blog you until the festivities are over so have a very happy crimbo, eat loads and drink plenty.........you know it's good for you, besides it'll help you get down the slopes faster in March if you're carrying a few extra pounds........take care and enjoy have a great crimbo!! Happy Christmas to you both and very happy new year. Take care. Di xxx P.S. CJU xmas party went down well. Playstation Singstar (Karaoke) and pizza in the bar, it was a brilliant night and as usual Mary got the rude secret santa. We all had to buy something from the £1 shop and Mary got the G String......her face was a picture. Sue Turner did a fantastic Tina Turner rendition on the singstar, you missed a real treat Ang!!!! Have a great time yourselves at Christmas.......bye Di xxx