7 February 2014 –
Are you ready for our last early morning jog in New Zealand? That sounds so final. While I didn't exactly enjoy getting up extra early…while the others were still sound asleep and shoving myself out the Beast's door to jog…I have to say it was a great way to start every morning and to see a bit of each area we visited before the sleepy towns woke up. It was definitely a nice break from the jogging I do here at home – which is on the treadmill (mostly due to air pollution in China).
Today's jog includes a very painful hill. OWWWWWWWwwwwWWWWWwwwwwW!!! We're going out with a BANG! Okay. My quads are still burning! However, I did see a bunch of cute looking buildings and I saw several small cafes along the waterfront – I think we should head down there for breakfast. Whatcha think?
Here we go….down, down, down the hill (I jogged up the darn thing!):
So, none of the photos show the cute buildings I saw. This part of the town reminds me of downtown Grand Haven, MI. It has a sweet coastal town vibe with cute souvenir shops and cafes.
Let's get some breakfast! We found a restaurant called Bully Hayes near the waterfront. Weird name, huh? Great food though!!!!
Waiting for breakfast….the girls got fluffies and hot chocolate.
And Mark and I got lattes. That's a lotta latte!
Lily has been practicing her spelling words every chance she got on the trip….as she had spelling bee competition very soon after she returned to the USA (she did GREAT by the way! So proud of you, Lily!!!!):
Lily, you can stop for a second and drink your fluffy before it gets cold!
I couldn't resist- I had to try the hot currant tea:
HA! We got Lily to take a break and eat her breakfast of yummy pancakes:
Cool shop I didn't go in but could have probably spent bucket-loads of money in.
I did end up buying several things at a merino wool shop down the street from the cafe. It's so soft and warm…and my favorite color (turquoise)! Annika and Ava wanted to look in every rock and mineral shop ….which there were quite a few of. Why do you need so many different crystal and rock shops in one town? Sad thing is….those are the exact same rocks you can get in any souvenir shop in the USA. While I did buy jade…GREENSTONE…for the girls in Arrowtown I just don't want to spend money on something that isn't from NZ. Does that make sense?
Hmmm…this photo doesn't quite capture what's happening on the water….there's a man and it looks like he's balancing on a jet of water coming from a jet boat of sorts. It's hard to explain and I don't quite get what's happening either:
Darn, this photo doesn't show how cute the town is either:
Heading out!
Time to leave the ocean and mountains behind…
and head back into the flatlands…
And back to Christchurch.
We're meeting up with Ray at the mall that was our very first stop after arriving in New Zealand. Time to stock up on any last minute items we want to take back with us at Countdown (a NZ grocery store chain). Oh! And buy one or two more bottles of fantastic microbrewed beer to enjoy one last time (tonight!).
Holy cow! The parking lot is FULL!!! I mean REALLY FULL! After driving around and around in circles we finally drove down one road and found a parking spot…but it's a fair hike back to the mall. Darn. At least we found parking and we've connected with Ray. Whew! All is good! And we've got beer and cheese.
As with most car rentals we have to bring The Beast back to the rental office with a full tank of gas.
Finding a gas station sounds like an easy task, right?
Right?????
What the heck?!?!!! We used the GPS unit to locate a gas station…and one after another there wasn't a gas station anywhere near the described location.
GRRRRRRR!!!!!!
After a whole bunch of driving…around and around and around and around in circles we FINALLY found a gas station.
Then off to the campervan place to return The Beast. The places closes around 4pm so we need to be sure and get our rental returned before then.
Boy! What a job that was trying to excavate our belongings out of our home-away-from-home. Sniff, sniff. I hate getting all sappy and sentimental and crap like that but this really was our home for the past two weeks and we loved it!
Here's one last look at the nearly cleared out Beast:
Wine glass storage! Oh, we did enjoy our wine during these past two weeks. Kiwis do know how to make an excellent shiraz!!!
We've got our suitcases back (Kea stored them for us while we were traipsing about the South Island) and we're heading to the Copthorne Commodore Christchurch Airport Hotel tonight. Lily and Ray are also staying here as they fly out tomorrow as well. They're flying via a stop-over in Fiji. Lucky them!!!!
The girls and the dads went for a swimming in the hotel's pool while I shuffled and organized our belongings back into our suitcases and duffle bag.
How about dinner…and dessert????
I can't remember what this dessert was but I do remember it being tasty. The sugar decoration gave me a pause though. LOL!!!
And so…it's with a *very* heavy heart that we leave behind New Zealand. We'd really rather stay. Plus, there are sooooo many things and places we didn't get to see and do. Like, Milford Sound and Arthur's Pass and Stewart Island and Invercargill and ..and.. and….the list goes on. We didn't try bungee jumping (actually, I really wanted to do the giant swing jump in Queenstown but it was all booked full. Bummer!). I would have loved to do more hiking…oh well. There just never is enough time on these trips, is there?
Well.
That settles it!
We have to come back and finish our bucket list! :-)
Right?
Here's one last look at most of the Minions (Henry is missing) in The Beast:
We're flying back to China early in the morning. Christchurch >> Auckland >> Guangzhou >> Beijing
Can I just say that I really like Air New Zealand? I really like Air New Zealand! Too bad we didn't fly with them the entire route back home.
Anyway…we're back now.
New Zealand is still in dreams….