Heritage Christchurch

We awoke, after taking a short flight from Dunedin the night before, in Christchurch. This picturesque city is defined by the large black and gray brick cathedral in the center of town. It is also adorned with lovely parks and gardens with the gentle Avon river meandering through its elegant core. I recall my brother being enchanted with the Heritage Hotel that we stayed at, and overall we quite enjoyed our visit to this city. We wandered all about the town visiting the cathedral, Canterbury ...

We spent the night in a fantastic hotel in Christchurch, the Heritage Christchurch. The rooms are in a renovated government building with high ceilings and elaborate trim, sweeping staircases, and bank vault doors on the entrance to the lobby mens and ladies rooms! Julie spent the day at the Flower Show, and is jonesing for her garden. She is envious of NZ gardeners- the climate here produces huge plants, of every kind. I explored Christchurch- Fazzaz Automotive is a great auto memorobilia st...

I got up at about 6:00 am and got my stuff together. I have really loved my time in Australia and it is with a touch of sadness that I am heading to the airport to leave for New Zealand. It is not that I am not looking forward to visiting New Zealand. I am. However, I will always have a special place for Australia in my heart. The cab dropped me off at the Sydney International Airport and my Air New Zealand flight left on time at 9:40 am. I sat next to a fellow on the flight who is from Hamil...

The tour bus was there to pick me up at the Heritage at 7:30 am. The tour company is called Canterbury Leisure Tours. The driver/guide warned us that the weather was "marginal" today for the whale watching cruise, but all of us on the tour bus were ready to give it a try, so we set out for the city of Kaikura. We soon were out of the city limits of Christchurch and traveling along fields of grazing sheep. Many of the fields were separated from each other by hedges like they have in Great Brit...

I got up at 6:00 am this morning for a day trip to Milford Sound on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand. I had arranged to fly on Air New Zealand to Queenstown on an early flight. The plan was to catch a sightseeing plane in Queenstown and fly to Milford Sound's airstrip, where I would take a couple hour boat tour of Milford Sound. Then I was supposed to fly back to Queenstown where I would pick up the Air New Zealand flight back to Christchurch. On paper it should have worked, ...