Riccarton Village Inn Christchurch

... I decided to give it a look. It is the last French settlement left in New Zealand and it certainly had a different feel to it – French flag flying, pavement cafes by the water and street names in French. It is a very pretty location but as always the drive to experience it involved negotiating a narrow winding and steep road. It is a popular destination for locals form the Christchurch area for weekends and Sunday afternoon drives so as ever my journey took twice as long as I ...

... the garden full of ducks and golden leaves still covering the ground as people walked or played in them or sat on benches and walked the world pass.<br><br>The Court Theater is in the Arts Centre, a former college that is now a huge collection of different artistic things: obviously a theater, a cinema, wood, jade and painting workshops, galleries and more. It's a big complex of Gothic architecture that lends a nice aura to its contents. "The Great Gatsby" was, well ...

... of comfortable beds and modern conveniences that I didn't have to empty with a gas mask on... Day 10 - Our last day in UnZud. We transferred all remaining supplies to CalamityBarb &amp; Ol' Dolly's wagon, because they were staying on for another 3 days. They were going to make their way up to Nelson &amp; Hanmer Springs. Pity we couldn't do it with them, but the salt mine requested me home. Herr Laurie and I did the "Dump Station" exercise and filled the wagons with go-juice. Hugs ...

... to head down the coast on the kiwi bus. I stayed to do a day trip to the Abel Tasman national park. I'd been told that the weather would be bad in New Zealand, and this was my first experience of it. I was dropped off my boat at the start of my walk, and the rain began. It rained solidly for the next 5 ish hours, for the duration of my walk. The walk was about 19km and every step was wet. As we left on the boat, the sun obviously came out and revealed a full ...

... that would freak them out). We had three swims in total, all were totally AMAZING. You really can make eye contact and they do respond to you and they loved the singing too. Our guide estimated that there were about 300 dolphins in this particular pod, although it is quite hard to judge as they are ducking and diving in the water all the time (apparently the general rule is to multiply the number you can actually see by 5). After this we had a chance to dry off and ...

Hello everyone again Just to make you all jealous we're having a fantastic time still with wonderfully hot, dry weather - well most of the time! We boarded the Interislander Ferry on Saturday morning - a bit dull after the very hot sunshine in Wellington - but as soon as the ferry started to move down came the rain - all the way across the Straits and then all the way to Nelson - which was a bit of a shame since even in the mist and rain it was obvious that the scenery was very ...

... trees on the south Island. In the Peel Forest we found a few Torra trees which were hundreds of years old, and one large lucky 1000 year old one that escaped the lumberjack squall of the 19 and 20th century. We are now doing laundry and getting ready for the weeklong trip to the North Island. We really have to pick and choose where to go since we only have one week, so we'll have to narrow it down to the highlights, no aimless wandering or multiple sushi stops.

... residential street!! Rather than stopping en route to Christchurch at Timaru, we decided to do all the 250km drive. The beauty of the South island is that whilst all roads are single carriageway there is not a huge amount of traffic around so you make progress quite quickly. Arrived at Christchurch just before 6.30pm and checked into our site. First problem was that the swim with dolphin tours in ...

... br>The past week has been an absolute whirlwind of catching<br>up with friends before I leave and just getting the stuff that needs to<br>be done, actually done.<br><br>It's been a bit sad to say goodbye to<br>friends this last couple of days. Not to mention clothes, shoes and my<br>other pretty things. My oh my! <br>But I'm looking forward to being on<br>the road and getting to see old friends. I'm looking forward to new<br ...

... at the hotel was worthy of a Ferrari &#8211; impromptu farewell photos around it, people clambering to get in the driver&#8217;s seat and Julia draping herself all over the bonnet like she was in a photo shoot for a magazine with a title like Vixens &amp; V8s or, more likely in this case, Hornbags &amp; Sensible Hire Cars.<br> <br>Ken, Lori, Daneeka and Julia jumped in, and with the CD ...