It's been almost 2 weeks since our last blog, and we are continuing our southerly route on the South Island. We left Nelson on the 8th of January and traveled just a couple of hours south to Blenheim. We found a terrific motel (cheap, CLEAN & roomy), then hit the wine trail visiting Villa Maria, Nautilus, Matua and Georges Michel. All had wonderful wines, so we re-stocked and went back to the motel and enjoyed a glass and then walked to the local tavern for some "good grub", then back to the motel for an early night, as wine tasting will do that to you. Jon is being so good at "spitting" after the tasting, he doesn't want to take any chances with what they call "drink driving" down here. So of course, I have to enjoy each sample fully! Our weather was wet and rainy leaving Nelson, but cleared and was nice by the time we reached Blenheim. We left the next day and traveled only another couple of hours to Kaikora on the coast as we planned to whale watch on the 10th. We arrived to a small little whaling village and stopped along the way to look at the fur seals on the rocks. It was very pleasant and not at all like the sea lion caves (stinky) in CA and OR. We were definitely close enough to touch, but of course that would have been mean! We checked in on the whale watching operation and crossed our fingers for good weather the next day. I woke to rain and wind the next morning, and sure enough, the outing had to be cancelled. Too rough to go out, so we spent the day walking on the beach/rocks and watching more seals. We left Friday because of reservations in Christchurch, but when we awoke, the sun was shining and we couldn't believe how calm the water was. Oh well, maybe on the return trip we will stop for whales. We arrived in CHC after a beautiful drive through very dry cattle and sheep country. They have been experiencing a drought for the last 9 mos. It looked like Wenatchee in August! We found the motel without trouble thanks to my terrific navigating skills and then called friends Stephanie and Dean to get together. Little did we know that they are right next to the motel (backyard borders the motel) we are in. Stephanie came over with the four girls (ages 7-15) to visit. The girls are darling and I knew they would be, cuz their mum is so sweet. We are hearing on the news tonight that Sir Edmund Hillary (Mt. Everest fame) has died and they are planning a state funeral for him later in the month. The following day we decided to go to the Botanical Gardens. We are only about 2 miles from them and so we parked on one edge and walked through the gardens for a couple of hours and thoroughly enjoyed them. The gardens border the center to CHC so we went on into the city. Our first stop outside the gardens is at the Canterbury museum. Another terrific and FREE museum. They have a great Antarctic exhibition there and in fact we saw Sir Ed's blue and white striped hat and his climbing boots that he used to summit Everest. It was pretty neat. We walked into the Arts center and enjoyed the music in the square and all the shops. It was pretty warm, so we stopped to enjoy a beer and then onto the Cathedral. It is a beautiful example of Gothic architecture and we want to return for one of the worship services. We also went "punting" on the Avon river. This is the English version of a Italian gondola ride. It was fun and hot! Turns out it was 98 on Saturday. Sunday we packed a picnic lunch and went back to the gardens with a blanket and our books and spent the rest of the day reading and walking and sleeping in the gardens. What a lovely city. I will leave you with pictures of the city and of the trees in the gardens and tell you that we miss all of you and will send some more details in a couple of days.
Cheerio!
Jon and Joyce
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