Take a hat

Christchurch - the Restart Container City - the Restart Mall Coffee at The Curators House in the Botanic Gardens Sad sight - the Cathedral Green shoots at the  Container City The Show must go on - but not quite yet - Theatre repairs underway I suppose if they had not had the catastrophic earthquakes we would have spent more time in this lovely city. The centre is absolutely devastated yet there is a positivity about the place. In the suburb where we are staying there is no evidence of damage, the trees are in bloom and the gardens are lovely. The City Centre is definitely work in progress. There is a container city right in the centre where they have set up shops and we sat and had a coffee and browsed. The new bus station alongside was thronged with school kids and commuters at the end of the day. The damage seemed a lot worse than we had expected but there is a lot of repair work underway. It is going to take a while! The Cathedral is a sad sight. Would be good

Geraldine, old fashioned shopping Mountains on the left as you  travel North A walk in the Bush at Awa Awa Rakaia Gorge in the evening Geraldine is a lovely little town. It is an ideal base to look around the area and has some unusual shops. I think it does pretty well from tourists as a lot of the tour buses stop off here. Good choice I'd say. Its worth taking an inland route from Timaru to Christchurch as you get to see the mountains on your left and you go through lovely farming country with high hedges. We opted to stay in Methven which serves the Mt. Hutt ski resort in Winter. We thought it would be empty but there was a Rhododendron conference on in town - amazing! So thats what goes on behind the hedges. Anyway we found a place to stay and went up in the mountains for a bit of bush-walking at the Awa Awa Rata Reserve. Really quiet tracks, apart from the birdies of course.

A quick look at the Southern Alps Taking in the scenery at Mount John Tourists at Lake Tekapo Observatory view From Geraldine we took a day trip into the mountains and Lake Tekapo. The Lake has a particularly bright Turquoise colour caused by the inflow melt-water with suspended ground up rock. Next to the Lake is an astronomical site - Mount Johns Observatory. It is a very pleasant walk up from the Lakeside. The Cafe on top serves good coffee and you get a 360 degree viewpoint of the Lakes and Mountains. Well worth the effort. This very friendly Paradise Duck  wanted to come into our Studio in Geraldine

October 27th 2012 - heading up the East Coast The view in the morning from our Cabin at Moeraki Moeraki Harbour Moeraki was an absolute picture this morning. We would have stayed another night if the cabin had been available. We had time for a walk around the harbour and the headland. A couple of fishing boats were returning laden with Blue Cod. Well, perhaps that's an exaggeration. Each fisherman has a quota of 30 fish, still a fair weight of Cod. They fillet the fish on the way home to leave all the messy stuff out in the Ocean so its all ready for the freezer. There is a renowned fish restaurant by the Harbour called Fleurs run by a Lady with great wild grey hair. Unfortunately, it was closed on the night we were there and we had debated pushing the boat out so to speak. She was catering for a wedding in Oamaru. We had Pasta at home. Living the Good Life We needed to crack on because we were making a social call today. One of TW's old workmates is living

Up the Otago Coast - 26th October 2012 Downtown Dunedin The wind blew and blew but did not blow our house down. The bottom end of NZ is obviously quite exposed to the elements but we made the best of our two nights at Kaka Point. Bush Walks, Beach Strolls and a Bike Ride on the Coastal Road were all on our busy agenda. On both evenings we went out at dusk to watch the Penguins come in for the night. Have to say that bird-watching on an exposed beach in a gale whilst trying to hide in wet grass is a tad uncomfortable. Hot soup back at the flat has rarely been so welcome. Kaka Point must certainly be a fabulous place in decent weather. Time to head northwards. T he road North took us to Balclutha and onwards to the big City of Dunedin. We were back in 'civilisation', traffic lights, parking charges and crowds. Undeterred, we walked miles around town. It's a big University Town and our route to the Botanical Gardens took us through a large College.  It is exam

Penguins in the wind - 24th & 25th October The Lighthouse at Nugget Point These must be the Nuggets at the Point? View to the Lighthouse at Nugget Point Kaka Point - The cabbage tree outside our place Nugget Point - spot the fur seal? A penguin puts on show near Kaka Point It is really amazing how much the scenery varies in New Zealand over very short distances. One minute you are driving across what is virtually a rocky desert and just down the road you hit an area growing fruit trees. Go a little further and you might see sheep grazing. Our route from Alexandra to Kaka Point certainly rang the changes. One thing you do notice is the development of off-road cycle paths. The Otago BikeTrail is very popular and is being expanded. Cycling is definitely seen as an important way of increasing tourism and filling Motel Beds. When we set off from Alexandra it was very chilly, when we arrived at Kaka Point it was very much warmer but the wind was phenomenal. No

Otago to go - Super  take-away - 24th October 2012 It's in the bag! Jimmy's Pies on the Pie-way to Dunedin Ok, so NZ has lovely mountains, superb beaches and friendly people. Sadly, that is not always enough. Some people have the need to be bounced on elastic till their backs stretch and their retinas fly off. The same people probably the desire to fly along the Shotover River in a stomach churning ride across the rapids in a Hamilton Jetboat.  The previous night they will probably have been out on an organised bar crawl in Queenstown getting blasted by Jagerbombs. Our agenda is a just a little more sedate and more selective. That is where Jimmy's Pies come in. There is a wee bakery in Roxburgh, between Alexandra and Dunedin, that makes the best meat pies ever! Bit surprised they do not call it a Pie-ery, but oh what a delight.  The Assistant behind the counter was bright eyed, bushy tailed and wanted to chat. She has worked as a volunteer at Kaka Point,

Wanaka to Alexandra via Queenstown 23rd October Cardrona - on the way over the  Crown Rang e SS Earnslaw on her way SS Earnslaw - all aboard apart from TW The SS Earnslaw heading across Lake Wakatipu Getting close to Queenstown Looking down from the Crown Range on Frankton and the Airport Queenstown from the Skyline - Bob's Peak Boating on Lake Wakatipu The Gardens in Queenstown From Wanaka it was over the Crown Range to Queenstown for us. The route, via Cardrona, is NZ's highest Alpine Road. Queenstown has become the party capital of NZ. Despite that, it is still a beautiful place to visit. We did not wait around for nightfall!  The Gardens, on a Penninsula that juts out into Lake Wakatipu, are lovely with  Rhododendrons and Azaleas in bloom. Tourists on the Skyline  We took the Skyline Gondola for an aerial view of Lake Wakatipu (the Lake that Breathes - the level of the Lake fluctuates like a giant breathing). We took photo