Early highlights of the first couple days of this year’s South Island trip.
We flew in to Christchurch and despite the stress of remembering how to drive on the “wrong” side of the road again, we made it to our motel without too much fuss. We spent the afternoon walking around downtown and viewing the after effects of the devastating 2011 earthquake as well as the rebuilding. The devastation was so great, they are still demolishing buildings today. But the rebuilding is coming along nicely and we enjoyed the city.
The sign really says it all.
Some of the rebuilding downtown district.
They have antique trolleys running through the downtown. Lots of fun to ride. Beautifully restored.
After the “city life” in Christchurch we shifted 180 degrees to farm living at the Onuku Farmhouse Hostel just outside Akaroa where our “room” was a trailer (known in NZ as a Caravan). What a fun way to stay!
We had a beautiful drive out to Akaroa on the Banks Peninsula.
Home for the night!
View out the outhouse window.
Since it was only 2PM, we decided to hike to the summit – supposedly a one and a half hour roundtrip. Well…we took a wrong turn and had to take the “adventure trail” which ended up as a three hour hike/climb just to get to the top. Oh, well a nice hike and beautiful views.
Humm...is this really the right way?
No trail, but almost to the summit anyway. Just took a bit longer.
Whew...
...and a lovely moonrise on the way back down.
Oh yeah, and the bull? Next day we went for another hike and guess what? We got lost. Ended up in a field with a pretty cow. There were lots of cows on the hike, so what the heck, we just walked on by – well, almost. This one started coming towards us…well, actually me…and started snorting!! We made a hasty retreat once we realized it was a bull and would probably not be amused if we tried to pet it. Once safely beyond his domain Ann admitted that she was glad I was wearing my bright red shirt. Until that is, I pointed out that her pack back was bright red as well!
Yeah, well, they didn't say what to do about BULLS!
Most of the cows were like this guy. They couldn't care less we were there.
We finally found the trail sign (hint: look on the window).
So, day three and we’re in Timaru. Bob has already made new friends with the locals.
The locals here are good listeners...
The entry to our hotel. Quite a change from our trailer from last night.
You guys sure know how to do a vaca the right way. Now you can claim you are trailer trash! I love it. And an outhouse too! All the finer things in life. It does bring to mind the many visits to my grandmother’s house in northern MN in the late 50s/early 60s. The outhouse always had a calender hung on the wall featuring MN fish and the good fishing days of each month. The northern pike impressed me with its prehistoric looks. Of course, there were also the ubiquitous flying bugs to keep you company while you examined the calender.
So you passed on the bull riding contest between the two of you? Might not get another opportunity like that again. 🙂
The little trolleys look very cool.