April 6 – Yesterday was a fairly long travel day for
us. We had probably the best cab driver ever
for our trip to the airport, an old Aussie who told us all about his family’s 4
½ year trip around Australia in a caravan many years before. What a character! Our flight on Air New Zealand went to
Auckland first, and we then had to catch a second flight to Christchurch. We optimistically thought we could get some
dinner after we cleared customs and passed through security, but we found
ourselves in one of the only airports I have ever been in that has virtually no
place to eat once you get to the departure lounges. So we were a hungry crew when we got on the
flight. Thankfully, Air New Zealand is
well stocked with snacks, so no problem!
They seriously have the best staff and entertainment that I have ever
encountered on an airline, and if they flew within Canada, I would travel with
them all of the time. All of this travel
really does broaden your perspective, though – it really brings home how great
Pearson Airport is, and who thought I’d be saying that?
This morning, we headed off in our rental car to see some of
the island. We plan to spend a fair bit
of time driving around and seeing the really varied landscapes that the south
island has to offer. We drove down the
east coast first and most of trip was typical motorway views – lots of farmland
on either side, the occasional view of the mountains to the west. However, we stopped in the town of Oamaru on
the coast for lunch, and it was possibly the weirdest stop we have had so
far. The town has some beautiful Victorian
buildings down by its waterfront, and they have filled them with funky clothing
stores, bookshops, coffee shops, etc.
Siobhan was in her element. We
had a fabulous lunch at the Star & Garter Pub (where their motto is
“Friendly Food & Delicious Staff”) and wandered out to find something
called “Steampunk HQ”, which is a museum/art gallery/conversation piece. I am not even going to try to describe
steampunk as a theme, and I strongly suggest that you Google it for an
idea. The closest I could come would be
to describe it as Marvin the Martian’s post-Armageddon garage sale. It was a really cool way to repurpose what
was obviously an abandoned machine works, but it was just off-the-charts
weird. The kids, of course, loved it,
although Siobhan feels that there may be steampunk nightmares in her future. More disturbingly, Liam says he has finally
found a theme for his room decoration – oy vey. Liam had a great time playing the rather disturbing pipe organ - seriously, I kept expecting to hear "Phantom of the Opera".
One of the guidebooks that Pete has on his phone suggested
taking a bit of a detour after leaving Oamaru, and we are so glad that we did. We left the motorway for some much smaller
roads and drove right along the coast, with some of the most beautiful views of
the ocean. It was an incredible coastal
drive, although trying to see the scenery while twisting and turning on tiny
roads is no mean feat. We saw loads of
ocean birds and a colony of penguins, who are actually found in fairly large
numbers along the coast here. We arrived
at our destination of Dunedin to our beautiful character hotel by the ocean. “Character”, however, usually denotes more
than just good looks – it also means “no elevator”. Pete boldly sacrificed himself and carried
the heavy luggage up three flights of stairs.
The doctor says he should be fine once he gets out of traction. The internet here is actually up and running
(which is more than we can say for the last two hotels) so I am hoping that I
can actually get some of these blog entries posted. I will have to keep my fingers crossed!
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