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Published: September 27th 2008
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On Sept 16th I drove to Christchurch at 6 am to pick up my mother who was arriving for a 10 day visit. She could not have timed the visit better with the gorgeous spring weather - usually bad weather follows my mother, but not on this trip. We drove straight back to Timaru after collecting her bags and skis and stopping for a quick coffee in Dunsandel.
Day 1 - stopped by Mountainview School to show her the campus and collect Sydney (but Sydney had already finished her exam and left), came home to greet the boys when they came home for lunch, saw Syd briefly before she had to go back for another exam, got Gregg for lunch and went to Blue Bay, took a walk along the ocean, and the Caroline Bay area, went to Avery's basketball game and watched Graham coach, drank G&Ts on the back deck, took a walk around the neighborhood, and that was all before dinner! Phew!
Day 2 - skiing at Roundhill. This is the reason why Grandma Judy came to visit. It was Highfield school's ski day so they took 2 buses with 120 kids and chaparones up to the
ski field. We opted to drive on our own, but we still got the group discount. It was a perfect day. Graham rented a snowboard and got a lesson again and by the end of the day could easily hang with us. Avery skipped school to join us (Highfield could only take Years 5-8 and Avery is year 4) - Syd had exams and couldn't go with us. Judy skied beautifully! It was a gorgeous, sunny day with amazing views of Lake Tekapo and surrounding mountains. We skied until 3:30. The only mishap was Judy's boot falling apart. The plastic deteriorated and the heal plate crumbled. It would mean we would have to rent boots to ski again - bummer. After a long sunny day of skiing we were ready for the hot pools. Again, gorgeous. Stopped for dinner at Reflections Cafe in Tekapo and watching an impending storm sweep over the lake (lightening included!). We made it safely throught the storm and over Burke's pass arriving home around 8pm and Syd had made a lovely kiwi pudding for us.
Day 3 - opted not to go to Oamaru but to hang around Timaru. Spent the morning shopping downtown
with Sydney, took her to coffee before she had to go to jazz band practice. Mom and I went to Shearer's Quarters for lunch - a favorite Timaru spot. I took Judy (mom) grocery shopping to see a kiwi grocery store and then sent her to guitar lessons with Graham. Graham, Grandma and I also went to the South Canterbury Museum to see Graham's award winning science fair project that had been on display for 10 days. After dinner we went to the polytech (like a junior college) to watch the kids rock climb. I then sent Sydney and Judy to see the local community theatre production of "Buddy", which we had seen on Monday. It was an excellent production.
Day 4 - gave mom the morning off. I went to my class and then got packed up for the weekend. We left around 1pm to go to Kaikoura for the weekend. It was a long drive (4 1/2 hours) but beautiful!! Kaikoura looks like Hawaii but with snow capped mountains. Our Top Ten accomodations were excellent for the 6 of us. The park had a bouncy pillow - something new for us and a LOT of fun! There
was also a hot tub from where you could watch the sun set on the snowy peaks of the Kaikora range. For dinner we chose a lovely place called the White Morph. It was one of the nicest places we have been to and a great way to kick off the weekend.
Day 5 - Gregg got up early to take photos of the mountains and ocean. He and I went to the I-Site to check out what to do and left the kids and Grandma to play. We came back with a great plan - off to see baby seals swimming at the base of the Oahu Falls, then on to the store for lunch and back to hike a 3 hour trail along the Kaikoura Penninsula over pasture land and along the cliffs. The seals were incredible. As Judy said "It's like something out of National Geographic". In springtime the seals pups climb about a km up the stream from the ocean to the waterfall and pool. If you stuck your foot out, they would play with your toes. You could almost pet them. The scenery along the coast is so spectacular! The lunch at "The Store"
Tekapo Hot Pools
Perfect after a day of skiing! was lovely, the drive on winding ocean roads was fun too. The hike a was great but 3 hours was long for all of us.... hmm, I wonder how we will survive the Routeburn and Milford treks?
At that point we were ready for the hot tub. Later that night Gregg and I took the kids to a local bar to watch some snowboarders. A local ski area had trucked in loads of snow and set up a snowboarding jump in the back lot of the bar. It was fun to watch the boarders and the locals.
Day 6 - We had arranged a Maori Tour and we were picked up at 8:45am. The tour was so informative and interesting. It is a family run business and they took us to several local Maori sites - old and new - taught us Maori greetings, customs, songs, chants (no hakes) and then invited us to their home for tea. The latter part of the tour was a forest hike where we learned about local trees, plants and their uses. We stopped back at the Top Ten briefly before heading to the beach for a seafood lunch before Gregg took the
boys fishing. They had arranged to go out with a local fisherman that afternoon. The trip which was to have been 2-3 hours was 1 1/2 hours as both boys got sea sick. It was plenty, however, as they came back with lots of Perch, a Crayfish (basically, a lobster without the big front claws), and saw lots of wildlife including Albatross, seals and a Little Blue penguin that kept popping up around the boat. We had a lovely dinner at our Top Ten unit - cooked the perch and the crawfish - yummy.
Day 7 - Ugh, a long drive back to Timaru! It was also our 18th Anniversary so we were trying to get back to Timaru in time for the kids to participate in their tennis lessons and for Gregg and I to go out for dinner. Got home and found out that due to it being South Canterbury Day, all but one restaurant was closed and the one that was open called to cancel our reservation due to too many staff illnesses. So, my good friend, Kim, came through and invited all of us over to eat some venison that her husband and son had
shot the previous week. It was a great last minute dinner and a wonderful way to conclude our long weekend and celebrate our anniversary.
Day 8 - Although we had planned to ski today, after the long drive on Monday, we opted to stay closer to home and enjoy the nice day. Good thing as when I checked out the snow report on Tues morning, all the ski fields were closed due to high, 70-120 km/hr, wind gusts (the famed Norwester, where warm winds from Australia sweep accross the Tasman Sea and pummel New Zealand). So, it was a good decision to not ski. Instead, we got to go to Graham's Winter Sport Day and watch him play 3 of the 8 games scheduled that day. It was a warm, almost summerlike, day so it was fun to be outside. Again we got to watch Avery play basketball and Graham coach later in the afternoon. And, again it was G & Ts on the deck enjoying the clouds flying overhead and the beautiful spring flowers that our gardener so nicely cares for.
Day 9 - a sad day... Sydney and I went to my Body Balance class and
mom came and watched. She said it was very similar to her yoga class and she was sorry she didn't participate. After class we came home and got grandma's luggage and skis into the car and had to head to the airport in Christchurch. It was a wonderful visit and we are all so happy that Grandma Judy came to see us. It was so fun to share our new lives here and to have spent so much quality time with her.
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Jack Hotchkiss
non-member comment
Hi Grandma!
Great to see that family members are visiting our (internet so far) friends. We will be having our three sons visit us in March, and many others have promised (threatened??) to visit us during our job there. Hope your visit is as much fun as it sounds!!!