The Empire Hotel & General Store Lyttelton

We are sitting in a deluxe apartment, wine in hand looking over the beautiful aqua green Lake Tekapo surrounded by snow capped mountains - bliss! But we have earned this rest as we have been working hard in the garden of a health retreat overlooking Diamond Harbour Christchurch for the last four days. Our wwoofing experience wasn't a bad one, we had fantastic views, great hospitality, tranquil setting but a ...

Decided to take the scenic route back to Christchurch.  Ended up taking the ups and downs on VERY small dirt roads, sometimes following behind herds of sheep.  Staying on the road (almost every turn of the way) was key as one foot off the wrong way with no fence meant a nice drop down the mountain.  Coming down from the fields dropped us into ...

... Walker Creek campsite, about 50km out of Te Arnu. It had a large, dense & robust tree which afforded us good protection from the rain for the evening "cocktail party" and a fair-smelling dunny with a skylight panel (this one was a flaash one aye). NZ DOC sites don't seem to be big on the campfire/bbq bit and this area was no exception. A campsite a bit further on did have some rudimentary fireboxes, but we'd need a litre or two of hi-octane "woofwood" to get it lit in this climate ...

... rained constantly. We were warned to keep the hut doors shut, as the largest woman the hutmaster had ever seen on the trail, complete with a white sleeping jumpsuit and pink slippers had left the door open one night only to have some visitors in her bed. He said that possums make quite a noise when squashed by fat ladies... Funny guy. Our bunkhouse had 24 bunks and at least 4 loud loud snorers. Of course we didn't have ...

Lyttelton is the port for Christchurch. In the morning we took the courtesy bus into Lyttelton which is a small town with only one shopping street. A nice town with again very friendly people who liked to chat. The Queen Victoria has never been there before so they were very interested in her. The scenery around the port and inlet was lovely and we were told that most of the houses here ...

... provavelmente têm visto bagagens ainda mais estranhas. Ainda antes disto, um dos cães treinados para cheirar comida tinha seleccionado a mochila pequena do Nuno, e não havia comida nenhuma lá dentro (está necessitada de uma lavagem e apesta um bocado, se calhar cheira um pouco a queijo da serra! :-)). O tempo em Christhchurch não estava grande coisa, estava nublado e muito mais frio do que estavamos habituados na Austrália, mas pelo menos não estava a chover ...

... island and airlie beach that had just been reunited with her boyfriend and was in extacy!!! we had anioce dinner and then went looking for a streetshow that we could only see the end of but saw some beautiful botanical garden with huge trees and flowers. its a tranquil town and looking towards the end of a long street showed an amazing view of hills and trees and skies that i am not used to see in towns at all.

... and very clean etc! We arrived in Christchurch early in the afternoon and booked into The Chateau on the Park which is a fabulous hotel right next to Hagley Park, a huge green area in the centre of the City. Then we pottered over to the Subaru Dealership and met Jonnie, and guy who came oit from Sunderland two years ago, and bourght our car ...a two year old Subaru Outback, the best cr we probably have ever purchased ourselves! This should have been the ...

... lamb left from here for England - vey significant in New Zealand's economic history. Some of the buildings were warehouses for the following wool trade and are still used that way; you can see where one was planned for an extension that didn't happen due to economic decline. The ship "Dunedin" sailed from here with the produce for England, but alas was lost in the South Seas without trace, having established the trade. I visited the workshop of a local stone-carver, Ian ...

An meinem freien Tag bin ich mit Matthias und Lisa nach Lyttelton gefahren und wir sind ueber die Porthills wieder nach Christchurch zurueckgelaufen. Die Aussicht war echt toll... Aber es war so unglaublich anstrengend. Wir hatten naemlich keinen schoenen Zick Zack Weg den Berg hoch, sondern es ging gerade steil hoch und genauso steil wieder runter auf der anderen Seite...