Christchurch and Trip to Nelson

Well let’s see where did we leave off. Port Waitkato was a very remote area but we really enjoyed the overnight there. The morning of the 29th we took our time and found our way back to the Britz Campervan location and turned in the Campervan and got a lift to the airport to catch our flight to Christchurch. Travel days are the long days. Both of our flights were delayed so we did not get into Christchurch till about 11:00 pm and got ourselves checked into the Chateau Blanc Suites. The location was a little older but nicely laid out as a one bedroom apartment and they had set up a bed for Melissa so she was quite happy with that.

We were located in the middle of the Central business district of Christchurch and could walk to almost everything. Dianna and I struck out on our own as Melissa was gone for a run and found a great coffee shop and enjoyed a relaxing morning before heading down to Cathedral Square.

Over the next couple of days we enjoyed walking around and seeing the sites and relaxing. We walked through the Botanical garden and took in all the fall flowerings that they had planted. It was funny to watch these two little Chinese girls running up to the lake edge to feed the ducks. There were thousands of ducks throughout the whole park and these girls were tossing whole pieces of bread at a time and the ducks were going crazy trying to get a piece of that bread.

Christchurch is a great city and both Dianna and I commented several times that this is the type of city that you could easily move to and enjoy as they have tons of things on the go that you can do outside. Walking trails are everywhere and you could be busy all the time and great exercise.

The time has flown by again and it is time to drive Melissa to the airport Sunday morning so she can catch her flight back to Queenstown as she has to work today at 1100 Am. You should also know that it has been raining quite badly in Queenstown and they had flooding in the downtown area. They had to sandbag the other day. After dropping Melissa off Dianna and I headed out for Nelson making a couple of stops along the way.

Our first stop was in Kaikoura along the east coast. This is a nice little town that has a lot of adventure tours going on even though this is the slow season. Whale and dolphin watching are the big sights from along here. As we were travelling along we were driving through the Wairarapa District which is a very large wine area. One was the Mud House winery which unfortunately was not open till 1000am and it was only 9 so we continued on and passed the Montana winery before arriving in Kaikoura.

The scenery is quite spectacular along the way, with lots of rolling hills, vineyards, sheep farms and breathtaking scenery in general. It is always good to talk to locals as they always give you the best places to see. One nice lady in Kaikoura told us about a scenic walk about 20 miles north of where we were along the coast where the seals are. She told us that the walk takes you along a small creek to the bottom of a water fall where the baby seals go to play in the pond. Well as we were driving along we came across the stretch with the seals and stopped and watched them sun themselves on the rocks and then we found the Ohau Stream walk that she had mentioned. We were not even 10 feet into the walk when we came upon about 10 baby seals splashing and playing in a small pool of water. They were the great entertainment and we came across more of them as we made our way up the creek to the water falls. Upon arrival we found about 60-70 of these little black seals frolicking around in the pool together and having a grand time. I got some great video footage of them. We could have stayed there all day just watching them. Now if you took the seals away you still had an outstanding water fall to look at that seemed to be about 100 feet tall as we could not determine where the top of it was. The baby seals had absolutely no fear of us at all and they actually seemed as curious about us as we were of them. One came up to us within 2 feet, but there was no sense taking chances as they were in their natural habitat and we were just visitors. I think that is what was so appealing about this walk was that it was not commercial in any way and was as natural as you were going to find. Who knows how long that will last. The good thing was that it is on Government land and not privately owned.

Well we continued on and made it to Nelson and our accommodations for the next two nights. Dianna says that I have hit the jackpot with this private apartment that I had found. Words cannot describe the view we have and the picture perfect set up this couple have built here at Arrow Rock Apartments. It is only a couple of years old and she has thought of everything when it comes to the conviences.

Today is currently May 3rd at 0900 am and we have a sunny day though at the moment there is a breeze blowing and it is still a little cool. We are going to be heading off to town to check some thing s out and hopefully catch a couple of wineries this afternoon.