Thursday January 30, 2025

We got up and headed to the gym around 6:30.  We are still on BC time, going to bed around 9 (midnight at home) and getting up around 5 (8 am at home).  We had the best porridge ever at the hotel restaurant, with fresh fruit, yogurt and granola on top.  We got on the road at about 9:20 and headed west on a secondary highway.  The speed limit is 100 km/hr (I think that's the maximum everywhere in the country).  We travelled through Canterbury which is farm country.  It's very flat and every field is divided by what I thought were trees from the air but seen from ground level we can see that they are hedges.  These hedges are 15, 20, 30 feet high and a lot of them are trimmed into perfect rectangles.

We saw a few horses, a lot of cattle and hundreds of sheep, along with fields of corn, wheat and other crops.  Everything is very lush and green.  After a while we came to rolling hills.  We took the time to stop at a rest area and just enjoyed and took in the sights.  Next we stopped at the Rakaia Gorge and crossed the one lane bridge which was built in 1882.

The road got a little windy (curvy), but nothing like what we are used to.  We travelled on to Staveley where we had lunch at a cute store and café - well, the only store and café.  There were a couple of signs across the road that told a bit of the area history.  We walked up the road to the old church which is very picturesque.

We took another break in Fairlie where we picked up milk and cookies at a grocery store.  There were a lot of tourists in town so we had a quick snack and left.

We drove on and got to Lake Tekapo around 2:30.  We checked into our hotel right across the road from the lake.  We have a gorgeous view of the little chapel on a point.  There are lots of tour busses, this is a very popular stop for the Chinese tourists, of which there are many.  It had warmed up to shorts weather, so we got changed and took a walk across the bridge to the chapel.  It was very busy so we thought we'd go back in the evening, but by 8 we were exhausted and in bed by 9 again.  This place is a dark sky reserve and I was hoping to see the stars tonight, but sunset is 9:30 so it didn't happen.

The lake is blue-green due to the rock flour in the water, which we see often in the Rockies.

By the way, my hair is channeling Monica Geller in Barbados.  I left my hair care products at home, thinking I would buy travel sized things when I got here.  I got the grossest hair spray but that's all I could find.

Unfortunately we could not get the Wi-Fi in our room, so I could not post to my blog.

Wednesday January 29, 2025

We had a really great sleep, got up around 6, headed to the gym then had breakfast.  Mid-morning we walked to the Northlands Shopping Centre, about 5.5 kilometers away.  The weather was quite pleasant although very windy.  We had lunch and wandered through the shops, picked up a soft-sided cooler and some ice packs, along with some fruit, crackers and cheese for the road.  By the time we were ready to head back mid-afternoon it had warmed up to 23 degrees, so we decided to take the bus back to the hotel.  We were warned that the atmosphere is thinner this far south, so we wanted to avoid the sun and heat.  We worked on speech and my blog, had dinner and went to bed early again.

I didn't take any photos today.  I will say the neighbourhoods we walked through were neat and tidy for the most part with pretty gardens.  All the houses are either brick or concrete blocks.

We have to be careful as there are very few zebra crossings (crosswalks).  There are little islands where you can go halfway across then wait for the other side to clear before continuing on.  Absolutely no one will stop for you though, whereas they will if it's a zebra.

We have decided that we will do touristy things in this area at the end of our trip when we have four days in Christchurch to see the sights.  Today was just relax and get ready for the road trip.  Tomorrow we drive 250 kilometers to Lake Tekapo.

Tuesday January 28, 2025

You may have noticed that I skipped a day.  That is because we lost Monday completely and landed on Tuesday.  New Zealand is only three hours time difference but one whole day ahead, so we will live the same day twice on our return trip to make up for it.

First sight of land.

Fourteen hours after taking off we landed in Auckland where it was 22 degrees and muggy.  We had to pick up our suitcase as we were switching from Air Canada to Air New Zealand.  Asked for help and was told to check in the bag at the bag drop, but the tag wouldn't scan.  Asked for help and was told we had to go to the bag drop at the domestic terminal.  We chose to walk the 1.2 kilometers.  Got there, asked for help and was told to scan the tag at the bag drop.  Tag wouldn't scan, asked for help and was told to go to the desk to get a new tag printed.  Every time I asked for help I had them look at the tag we had, but still got the wrong information.  Sigh.  Had some lunch then boarded our 2:00 flight to Christchurch.  Which left late, probably by 1/2 hour but I don't even remember noting the time.  Below are the Canterbury Plains.

When we landed in Christchurch we picked up our car (a Toyota Yaris hybrid, a bit of a roomier upgrade than what we had booked).  They gave us the GPS we requested for free, since it is not completely up-to-date.  Got out to the car, loaded everything in, took some time to get used to the right-hand drive, then off to the hotel.  Brad was very encouraging, I was very nervous, but I didn't hit anything or take any wrong turns (it was only 1.9 kilometers).  I did, however, turn on the wipers every time I had to turn, due to the turn signal being on the right hand side of the steering column.  Finally settled in our hotel at 5 pm, 31 hours after leaving Diane's in Kamloops.  We showered, had dinner and were in bed before 9:00.

The courtyard of our hotel.

Sunday January 26, 2025

It's time to update the travel blog!  It's so exciting to be on another big trip.  This one is very different in a lot of ways - post-covid I find that I am much more aware of distancing and sanitizing; I am the lead on all communication now; and we are older and more appreciative of taking the time to just relax and recharge.

We left home on January 25th and drove to Kamloops.  We spent the night at Brad's sister's place and had a nice visit.  She drove us to the airport the next day where we caught a 3:00 flight to Vancouver (delayed by 1/2 hour - do they ever leave on time now?).  Then lots of time in the YVR airport, which I never mind.  I bought my traditional books - I always by one at YVR but got two this time - we had dinner and just chilled until we had to board our 11:45 pm flight.  Once we were on the plane we ended up being delayed for an hour.  The catering truck broke down right next to the plane so we couldn't be backed out from the terminal.  When it was finally moved we had to go to get de-iced and finally took off at 12:45 am.  When we reached cruising altitude we were served dinner, which I was not expecting at 1:30 in the morning.  I have difficulty sleeping on planes and this was no exception.

Saturday June 25, 2022

Dartmouth

Today we had another nice sleep-in.  I'm not sure if we're still on BC time or what is going on, but we stay up late and sleep in whenever possible.

We spotted Ikea on our way in yesterday and decided to head over there for a gander and some Swedish meatballs.  It is just over 2 kilometers away and we haven't been in a very long time.  We took lots of photos and got some ideas for things we might want to do in the future (light fixtures, mirrors, etc.).

Flowers and bee butts on our walk.  I think we are done with sightseeing, so the number of photos has dropped off drastically.

There are numbers of children running up and down the hall yelling and screaming.  I pity anyone trying to get a baby to sleep, take a nap or who isn't feeling well.  I opened the door and gave them the stink eye once, to no avail.  There is a massive sports facility with multiple fields right across the road, but their parents feel they should run screaming around the hotel instead.  It finally stopped at 11:00 pm.

Friday June 24, 2022

Truro to Dartmouth

Checked out of our hotel at 11 and took a cab to the bus depot.  The train only runs back to Halifax every second day, and today is not it.  We left our luggage at the depot and walked next door to Tim’s in the pouring rain.

The bus was due to leave at 12:50 but was running…late.  We finally left at 1:55 and got into Dartmouth at about 3:15.  Why Dartmouth you ask?  Because it's cheaper than Halifax!  Another cab to the Holiday Inn Express, which is very new and spacious, if a bit out of the way.

While waiting at the bus depot in Truro, there was a woman filming a couple.  Brad said it was for the Amazing Race, which I scoffed at.  Well, he turned out to be right.  They are filming the UK version and they’ve been in Canada for 7 weeks starting in Haida Gwaii.  The man has a bit of a northern accent, and his wife is Scottish.  They have the camerawoman (English) who also seems to be producer (she is always telling them what to say), a sound tech (Irish) and another technician (never heard him speak).

After getting settled in this hotel, we walked through the fog to Moxie's for a nice dinner.

I spent the rest of the evening posting 3 days worth of blog.  I just might get caught up tomorrow.

Thursday June 23, 2022

Truro

Our hotel is a ways out of town, so we can't really do much exploring.  For the longest time, we could not get a rental car anywhere in Nova Scotia.  Then a few became available just before we left, but they wanted $1,000.00 for four days.  We checked again mid-way through our trip and the price had increased to $1,600.00 for four days.  Apparently there is a shortage of new vehicles due to a computer chip shortage, so the rental companies cannot replace cars in their fleets.

Luckily there are laundry facilities at the hotel.  We spent a leisurely day doing laundry and blogging.  Brad's aunt Carol and her husband Michael picked us up later in the afternoon and we had a nice dinner out with them, and another nice visit.

This is the only picture either of us took all day.  Brad really likes this motorcycle trailer.