Bealey's Christchurch

... the sake of the coincidence.<br><br>I really liked Fairlie &#8211; it has a population of less than 900 but it has so much going on, and everything you could need &#8211; good shopping, good sports facilities, library, choices of cafes and restaurants &#8211; with a gym and a cinema it would be perfect. It is not touristy at all just a normal wee town going about its business and I would recommend it as a chill out spot. I was sad to leave there but on my last morning I enjoyed an ...

... town outside on Sunday night. After Breakfast on Monday we clad in warm clothing and walk the couple of blocks to Cathedral Square, although a bit strenuous I would recommend the climb to the top of the Cathedral Spire. There are plenty of other things to see around this area but it is still a commercial hub so not everything is there for tourists and you are competing with office workers when you want a coffee.<br>Just before noon we had walked back up past ...

... freshest socks &amp; finest flannies for a night in the big city. Suitably resplendent, we waited for a maxitaxi at the front gate for a ride into town. A shiny doof-doof wagon passed by and the occupants screamed a peculiar greeting to us. They were of the local tribe which must have a vision handicap, because they screamed "N#G#ERS!" at the top of their lungs. I waved and replied "Yo Bro!" loudly, as our group began laughing uncontrollably. The womenfolk examined their make-up ...

... from home. After 2 full days in Christchurch, I hopped on my first Kiwi Experience bus. http://www.kiwiexperience.com/ It's basically a hop on-hop off backpacker bus that goes around New Zealand. You can get on one virtually every day and it's a good way to get around and meet a whole bunch of people. I bumped into Stella and Nancy from Fraser Island on my bus, which was wicked. It was good to see friendly faces. We headed north on the bus towards ...

It has come to our attention that some people may still be looking at this old blog. Before we left on our trip we moved to a new site. The link http://www.drewanddeirdre.com will redirect you to the correct blog but if you ...

... but then no one could come. SO! I am now just going to have a cookout at some random fire pit where everyone can come (and not make a mess of my house), have a good time, eat a bunch of food, and relax. That's what I want really. Just to see (mostly)everyone outside of work and hang out. And on the 14th I get to see my rugby game! It turns out Dorica (my neighbor) can't come because I told her the wrong date, so I may just have to stand outside the stadium and ...

... checking in, Andy and I went to have walk around the town and a catch up. We had a quick look into the Cathedral, wandered down to the river, watched a bit of the ponting that was going on, and then stopped off to have some dinner and a glass or two of wine before heading back to the hotel just as the jetlag kicked in. The next day we did a walking tour of Christchurch and learnt about the ships that came over from Europe and how people trace themselves back to ...

Later in the day, post-dolphin swim &amp; well rested from the bus ride (at one point all the dolphin swimmers were asleep), we headed into Christchurch. Really, I didn't do much there. They had a central square area that we chilled out in, I got ice cream &amp; sushi and did a little shopping (what else is new?!?). There are a couple pics of the Cathedral, because I figured I needed to take a picture of something!

... br>Westpac bank to pay for the speeding ticket, and then headed for the<br>airport at 11 AM. We found the car rental return, check-in, security<br>lines, departure gates, to all be really fast, easy and small because<br>of the little traffic they must get or something. Our flight on Air New<br>Zealand was again like it should be, lots of snack and candy rounds,<br>even for just a 1.5 hour trip.

... be passing so we should be ok. The idea is to sell the car in Auckland before we leave and recoup at least some of the money, although whatever happens this approach should be cheaper than renting. (or than shipping over our Mondeo)<br><br>We tried the car out on a trip to the Banks Peninsula outside Christchurch: it wasn't in Lord of the Rings but it could have been, awesome rolling hills surrounding two drowned volcanic craters. And a great tearoom called ...