The Weston House Christchurch

... as a small voice from about knee height saw the pictures and yelled 'buzzy bee' - so evidently this venerable toy is still in the national psyche.

We did the first walk yesterday, giving Bluesmobile V a gentle test drive out to the beach at Sumner, and then a walk up 130m to the cliff above Taylors Mistake (so called, it seems because he took the wrong turn while trying to find Lyttleton harbour). The legs definitely need some work for the walks we have ...

... I am the only one besides Eilidth with a broken knee and no official drivers license who can drive stick. When we got to the parking space marked on our receipt, we looked at each other and broke down. We had been given the most ridiculous car in the lot! It gave a new meaning to economy compact. There was no boot(trunk)!! It was the tiniest hatch that I wouldn't even be able to sit in. My guess is that it was less than a foot deep and we had a lot of stuff with us. Audrey ...

... was half the fun. Our climb down was a lot easier than the climb up and by the time we got off the glacier 4 hours from the start we were knackered and ready to head home. Yet we still had a 40 minute walk back, Fun!

Back at the hostel finally we sat down for a breather, they boys were in bed nursing their hangovers and other than making tuna pasta none of us moved that night.

Day Five:

The boys got up at 6 for their 7am glacier climb (part of this ...

... NZ greeting of a raised finger and fist, It worked - they departed. We waled over to the fence to check the view and what a view it was. A huge raised roadbrige to span a watercourse, along with landslippage & boulders strewn through the ravine. Very impressive. Not so impressive was the young mother using a small gap at the bottom of a giant boulder above the carpark to stuff a nice ripe disposable nappy in. A loud "Hey, what in the hell are YOU doing?" changed her mind and she ...

... made this country my first choice for a return visit once this round of world travels is over.

In the interest of time (yours and mine), instead of blogging on all of the great times I encountered in New Zealand, I kept bullet point notes of memorable moments during my stay there and will include them in several blog entries along with pictures, beginning with this one focusing on my time on the North Island from Christchurch to Mt. Cook National Park ...

... paid-for cars before burning them out by the side of the road, but apparently that was nothing compared to the abuse that came from the mouth of hero no. 2, who was steering the campervan behind us! oh yes, not only did he hate the english, but he hated everyone! 'you f*cking poms, them f*cking chinese, those f*cking pakis, those bloody abos etc etc!' actually, it turned out the only people he really did like, apart from his fellow australians, were the irish! anyway, so that was ...

... people talking and the ducks splashing in the water. The ducks were really funny to watch. On our way to the gondola we stopped at the top of Cracroft Reserve and got a great view of Christchurch, we didn't stay at the very top for long because it was really windy. We also looked around a cafe/restaurant that was in an old manor house, stone walls, big staircases, stain glass windows and suits of armor. It was really cool. When we took ...

... doubled back to the former ANZ Bank Chambers standing guard at the intersection of High and Lichfield Streets. The copper dome turret shone brilliantly in the early morning sun. After coffee at an Italian shop we walked to Cathedral Square - one of Christchurch's primary tourist attractions. Fighting our way through thick American accents we browsed the Cathedral Square Markets before ...

... which included a rose garden with about every color you could think of. There was also a small river that ran through the center in which people took long canal-type long boats. The next day we took a great hike up the Bridal Trail. At the top, we had a nice 360 degree view of Christchurch and the surrounding towns. We did do some shopping later that day ...

... alsof ik iets mis. Het is te klinisch, te netjes, te opgeruimd.

Toen ik terugkwam in het hostel, ben ik lekker aan het freubelen gegaan met een stuk draad en een sluiting die ik gekocht had, de kralen had ik al, en heb zowaar die avond een eigen enkelbandje gemaakt. :-D Daarna besloten om toch nog een nachtje bij te boeken, omdat ik eigenlijk nog wel een paar dingetjes zien wou.

Zoals het Canterbury Museum, waar ik de volgende dag naartoe ben geweest. Erg ...