Stonehurst Accommodation Christchurch

... at the hairdressing schools in Auckland.

Baggy old car prices have gone up, bizarrely, and everyone wants to sell you a Subaru Legacy station wagon which wasn't what we wanted. An early start to the soggy Addington Car market looked depressing - but then the phone rang and a lead from earlier in the week paid off, and we are now the proud owners of a 1990 Honda Accord saloon which seems to tick most of ...

... machines. We had a ride in a Hugglung... an all terrain vechicle whch can go over steep hills, cracks in the ice over 1m wide and float in water. It was extremely bumpy. The best bit of the center was the blue penguins... they have 27 rescued penguins on display so we watched them being fed and then had a backstage tour. Luckily only me and Jon were on the tour, so we got excellent views of everything. The guide told us all about ...

... 5% Malbec. Bright red fruit nose, lighter than expected on the palette.

Lunch at Pegasus Bay

Amuse Bouche – Mushroom, Thyme and Truffle soup

Celeriac, fresh bianchetto truffle and cannellini bean soup, mascarpone

- C******nay Virtuoso 2006

Free-range 350g North Canterbury pork cutlet, Calabrese salsa, fennel, watercress salad

- Pinot Noir 2004

Espresso

Daniel ...

... bed of rosti potato and topped with egg Benedict, surrounded by a cranberry coulis, washed down with a very nice local Waipara Pinot Noir. H had Gurnard (a local fish) on a bed of mashed potatoes with salsa and mussel sauce, with a Marlborough SSB (Semillon sauvignon Blanc) Both excellent meals.


Incidentally all the people we have met so far have been delightful. The chap sitting next to us on the plane was from Glenorchy (Gilly) and was very pleasant and informative, as ...

... traditional Kiwi roast dinner option here tonight.


Barrytown to Franz Josef

You have the morning to walk (head along the beach and search for greenstone); canoe in the National Park (this trip has amazing scenery with some likening it to 'Jurassic Park') or make a bone carving with the locals (a unique, highly recommended activity). We depart at midday and head into the heart of the West Coast where time almost stands still. We stop in ...

... I made a trailboss tactical decision and we stopped for lunch just out of town on the rising lakesedge road, near a track sign that said "waterfall walk". I'll go for a walk. Ha Ha - a steep clambering slide downhill to the waterfront for the next joke - no waterfall. Obviously the same signwriter as the parking lot. Lovin' Queenstown. I gouged my way back up the track to the wagons. SquawJenny waited patiently at the hilltop with my lunch in hand and comments that I look nice in ...

... in lots of activities (mostly involving silly outfits!) and slept in lots of different beds (mostly creaky bunk beds!) and I've worked out that so far this year I've slept with 24 different people, 10 of whom I dont know their names! - Just to be clear I mean this in the sense that I have shared a room with 24 different people, and its very hard to learn someones name when they sleep all the time which happened when I was in Auckland for the month! So not quite as it seems!

... Day 13 - Makarora to Queenstown We drove past Lake Wanaka and through town of Wanaka on our way to Queenstown.  Shortly before arriving in Queesntown we stopped at the bridge over the Kawarau Gorge.  It was a very confusing and adrenaline filled day.  If you don't know what happened, you need to read Merina's and Rigel's entries for that day (February 21). After checking into our hostel, Queenstown X-Base, we went for dinner at "Winnie's Gourmet Pizza Bar".  This had ...

... I have to say that sadly I would not expect to meet the same level of service and friendliness in Europe!  We had dinner at a restaurant called Serpia on 'The Strip' just across from the hotel where the food was very good although the noise from the kitchen towards the end of the evening caught our attention. It sounded as if the entire staff were throwing pots pans and cutlery at each other and if the intention was to clear the ...

... for quite a while ("So that's connected to that, and then that pushes that and blah blah blah...") You can probably guess what we did in the evening - yep, we watched more DVDs! Christchurch is a really pretty place to spend a day or two but, when you've come straight from Sydney, the lack of activity is quite a shock considering it's the South Island's biggest city. When you look at our photos, you'd be forgiven for thinking we'd popped back to England for a few days!