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Published: March 6th 2011
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Going south
and already in touch with the wildlife 2 and 3 March. Today we transferred to Sydney without anything exceptional happening. Our flight to Christchurch was delayed by an hour so it was late when we arrived (around 01.00 am). They had arranged wheelchair assistance for me which enabled us to fast track through immigration and baggage but we had to open our cases at Environmental Control because we’d been walking in the forest in the Blue Mountains and our boots might have been carrying some undesirable bug. Anyway the nice lady with the nicely pressed uniform and holstered Smith and Weston hand gun took my boots and gave them a jolly good clean with some sanitizer but for some reason wouldn’t apply leather dubbing and weatherproof when I asked her!
Because our bed and breakfast in Christchurch, booked before the quake hit, couldn’t take us as they had no power or water we spent 7 hours unsuccessfully trying to sleep on airport lounge chairs. I tell you there are some strange people walking around airports during the night hours - shades of Tom Hanks in the film ‘In Transit’?
We collected the van and although it was little tired and rattling (like us I suppose!)it is well designed and gives enough space for the two of us. We got ourselves sorted with groceries and food plus a mobile sim card and we were in business setting out inland to the west. The roads became very quiet after just a few km and we were able to appreciate the lovely scenery as we made our way to the pretty township of Geraldine about 1.5 hours south of Christchurch. We had a picnic lunch at a little place named Alford under the intimidating sight of Mount Hutt and Mount Sommers before arriving mid afternoon and very sleepy at Geraldine where we found a Kiwi Holiday Park and set up for the night. A quiet site this with good clean facilities and not expensive – just NZ$28 (about £14-50
4 March. Slept like the proverbial log – 8 hours solid in fact the best night’s sleep since we set out on 6 Feb. Just goes to show that we are more suited to the freedom of caravan and campervans than hotels and apartments. We decided to head west for the hills and had the most wonderful journey through Mackenzie Country taking in Fairlie, Lake Tekapo, Lake Pukati where we had the most superb view of Aoraki Mount Cook and the township of Twizel which was built originally to house contractors for the nearby hydroelectric power station but has continued to survive because of its proximity to Mount Cook and the expansion of tourism. The contrast between the mountains, the clear blue skies and the blazing turquoise water in the lakes has to be seen to be believed. We made a detour to the observation site of New Zealand’s biggest dam at Lake Benmoor before continuing on past Lake Aviemore and to our camp site for the night at Kurow.
Today’s highlights –a good night’s sleep, the colour of the water at Lake Pukati, dramatic view of Mount Cook , Benmoor Dam
Lowlights - none
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