Christchurch and the south island
Trip Start
Jan 11, 2008
1
12
16
Trip End
Feb 22, 2008
Where I stayed
Christchurch,
South Island,
New Zealand
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
In the morning we called our friend Ashley to see about heading over to his place. We didn't have his cell phone number though, so we hung out in the hotel reception interneting and running over to the hotel for breakfast food until we contacted him (thankfully I found that Ashley did email his cell phone number the night before and we caught him at the university). Turns out the kids had already started their new term at school on the Monday, but Feb. 7th was a country holiday and they would have the day off then. Ashley came and picked us up at the Sudima hotel, and we dropped off our bags at his place and he ran us downtown near the Dept. of Conservation (DOC) office so we could plan our next hike. The DOC had moved though, and after a bagel and cream cheese we discovered it closer downtown. Theo and I discussed hiking options with the DOC people (they are somewhat helpful but not so much for any area not near them) and eventually we decided that hiking in the Nelson Lakes area would be a good bet weather-wise
01) James and Rosie walking home from school
. The hike we envisioned would be a combination of the Travers-Sabine Circuit with the D'Urville Valley Track, and then we wanted to hike up to Angeles Hut (about a 1350m hike uphill) to spend our last day on the trail with a grand view.After a stop for some groceries we were back at Ashley's and walking to the nearby school to pick up Rosie and James. Oh my how they had grown in the last two years! Rosie was now a tall 11 year old, almost shoulder height on me. And James had also grown, and now at 6 years of age could talk a mile a minute and almost run as fast! We chatted with them on the walk back to Ashley's, and continued laughing and talking all through a home cooked chili dinner. Poor Ruffus, their cat, had just had all his teeth pulled out at the vet's because they were diseased, but seemed to be recovering okay. Tomorrow was a holiday, so they stayed up later, and the plan was to head over to the beach in the afternoon to try out some surfing and boogie boarding (Rosie had learned to surf during her recent summer vacation to the Sunshine Coast of Australia).
