We started out in Christchurch, which we both liked a lot, drove down the east coast as far as the Otago peninsula, and then cut across the mountains. Back up the west coast, and then headed east again, leaving from Christchurch.
The diversity of landscape - snow, mountains, beaches, rolling hills, rainforest - was amazing, the the lack of population through the whole island was also surprising.
Our two favourite places (which may have had a lot to do with the very nice accommodation we stayed in) were the Otago Peninsula, and a crayfishing town called Kaikoura.
In Otago we stayed in a lodge called Kaimata, recommended by Em and Muz, and you just feel yourself relax as you drive up. It's all built from trees and stone which are originally from the property, and there are three bedrooms and a main lodge, which in theory you have to share with other guests, but not if you are the only guest!!
There is a deck which is very child-unfriendly which looked out over the inlet, and that's pretty much what we did for most of our time there. Surprisingly, Jamie didn't know I was a little bit obsessed with fireplaces, putting increasing amounts of wood on the fire, poking the fire, turning over bits of flaming wood, etc.
There was also a fantastic kitchen, and one of the trip's highlights was the property owners asking us if we liked venison, because their friend had hunted some, and they had heaps, and we were welcome to some if we wanted. oh... my... god... did he just say that?? Needless to say, once I interpreted the NZ accent version of the pronunciation of venison, the poor man was ambushed with enthusiasm, and a venison pie was made.
This is the view from the deck on an overcast afternoon.
Amazing.We felt like we were in the middle of nowhere, hardly saw any other people, and it was really, really blissful. Kaikoura was more populated, but also charming and cute in a summer beach town in the middle of winter way. Known for two main things - it's seafood and it's wildlife, we were going to be pretty easy to please. Get this - there is a waterfall where BABY SEALS go to play - OMG - it was the cutest thing ever. We went both days we were there, and loved it. They crawl a good ten minutes walk up this creek every day and just hang out all day splashing in the base of this waterfall. It must be safe for them - I must admit I was really surprised that people are allowed so close unsupervised.They were so cute and curious and playful.
This little guy liked the sticks I threw in the water.
Another highlight of Kaikoura was the seafood BBQ. It's the world's cheapest setup, and possibly one of the world's best ideas. It's basically a BBQ on the side of the road with some wooden tables and chairs, where they have lovely fresh seafood, and the rest is pretty self explanatory. Awesome.
But it wasn't all idle lounging about. Our trip also had a touch of drama... During a "shortcut" over a mountain pass (lesson learnt here by the way) we got stuck in a snowstorm. After some very nice and friendly people helped us put our chains on (read - they did it for us - chains are damn hard to work out!!!), we were shortly after waved on to the side of the road where right in front of us a bus had just gone off the road and was rather precariously balanced, and four 4wd's had gone sliding into each other because the road was solid ice.Someone came and tapped on our window and asked to get in our car to stay warm because his car was right on the bend and had already been hit three times by other sliding cars, and they were worried it would go off the edge off the road (keep in mind we are up a mountain) if it got hit again. Weeeeeellll, ok then. He was really nice actually - he was from NZ, but taught engineering in the middle east.
I think it was probably largely luck mixed with a good dose of not realising what to do in a car in a snow storm that saw our little corolla emerge unscathed.
Other abridged highlights include:
- going to a Paul Kelly concert in Christchurch which was part of the arts festival they had on
- eating at two restaurant of the year finalists - a Thai place called Chinwag Eat Thai, and a winery called Amisfield.
- the offer of freshly hunted venison (that gets a mention again for being so good)
- announcing snobbishly that "I'm so over pinot"
- buying new Ugg boots with cowhide on the outside... Just when you thought uggs couldn't get better... wow.
In summary, it was so nice just hanging with the hubby and chillaxing. We'd recommend doing the trip we did to anyone. We are feeling refreshed, happy and relaxed. Even the very expensive plumbing problem we came home to isn't going to rain on this parade.
If reading this leaves you thirsting for more, the rest of the pics can be viewed here:
p.s. the entire body of text in this post somehow turned into a hyperlink, and it's taken me about 15 minutes of screwing around to fix it (which involved cutting and pasting into a word doc - there has to be an easier way... and I'm sure there is, I just don't know it), so you people better appreciate the effort.
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