First Week

Rainbow while driving Lewis Pass

Hard to believe that we’ve been here almost a week.  We’re headed back across on the ferry today to Wellington for our second game.  Today we’ll see South Africa take on Fiji.  The Springboks are the reigning World Cup champs and they have a long ways to go to remain so.  We watched Wales almost beat them at our first game.  I’m a bit worried about the ferry ride as I didn’t fair too well on the first one, about 15 minutes into the 3 hour trip and I was feeling very sea sick.  I survived without actually losing my cookies by getting some fresh air, taking some “anti-quease” and falling asleep.  I plan on taking the “anti-quease” before we leave this time.

Mountains while driving via Lewis Pass

We had a pretty eventful last few days and we’ve driven about half the distance of the country.  After driving south to Wellington from Auckland, then south to our house on Moetapu Bay (including ferry trip), then south to Christchurch we finished up by driving back north via the Lewis Pass to our house.  It was at least a 6 hour drive with a few stops to take pictures and one grocery shopping trip.  I, once again, betrayed my better instincts and asked Mike when to stop for fuel.  We ended up squeaking into Blenheim with only 7 miles left in our fuel range.  We decided that from now on I will decide when we stop for petro.  For Mike’s benefit I will say that we passed 2 gas stations that were closed before 6pm.  Why would a gas station close before 6pm??

We had a great time visiting Kevin & Jennifer in Christchurch.  They live outside of town in the plains on some of the flattest land we’ve seen in New Zealand.  It was great to catch up, see someone we knew and get their views on so many New Zealand things.  They’ve been living here for 14 months and they had lots of stories to share.  They also had some great recommendations on places to visit.  Wednesday, Mike and I went for a flat land run.  The roads are so crazy!  We went straight from Kevin & Jennifer’s place then ended up somehow going in a triangle back to their road.  Why on flat land do roads go on angles?  Mike would like to recommend many things to the people that build roads in New Zealand!   

Earthquake damage in Christchurch

Once we got back and showered up we headed into Christchurch to Kevin & Jennifer’s favorite breakfast place.  Drexel’s is an American breakfast restaurant and it was delicious.  I had 2 huge fluffy gluten free pancakes with a fresh fruit salad and tea.  So delicious.  Then we headed downtown to see the earthquake devastation and the redzone.  It was very interesting to see it with Kevin & Jennifer as they were able to comment on how much progress the city has been making in securing the buildings and opening them back up or tearing them down.  It was very sad to see all the devastation that the earthquakes brought.

 After walking about town we drove back to the house to have some chili and give Kat a call.  Kat was a student vet at Green Meadows some time ago.  We met through Darcy and got along quite well.  She is on her second season in New Zealand as a vet and lives to the south of Christchurch in Ashburton.  We took a drive to Mt Hutt, but found the road to the ski fields closed so we headed to Methven for dinner.  Kat was able to meet us and we had a great time catching up.  Kevin & Jennifer were excited to meet another American and one that was a vet.  I learned lots about the dairy industry here in NZ.  It was so interesting.  We crashed one last night in Christchurch and then said our goodbyes to start on our drive back.

Mike looking at the Maruia Falls

 We spent yesterday relaxing around the house, exploring the beach and we took a run/hike up around the sound.  It was a nice day just relaxing and being on vacation.  We watched Japan vs New Zealand too.  I have lots to say about food here, so maybe I’ll get a post written next week about all of our food adventures. (I'll add some pictures when we have free internet tomorrow.)