Saturday 25 February

The sun is shining! It’s rained the entire time we’ve been in Christchurch, but of course today, as we must leave, the sun shines. We’ve got a 5 hour drive so we can’t muck around. We pull out and head north. I suppose like any city, we depart through industrial areas, until we reach the Waipura wine country, which doesn’t last for long. We then enter a very different landscape to that which we’ve experienced before in this beautiful country. We see rolling hills, rather than mountains, baby pine forests, natural terraces, and that grass again – but this time with a pink tint

We pull off the highway to go to Gore Beach

Where the water is Sandy

Further up the highway the precautions for falling rocks are in place

Much of this drive is right on the water, as far east as one can safely drive on the South Island. We see a sign which seals the deal for us, and we park and take a climb up the steps

We hear them loud and clear and we can finally see them. I wonder if you can Spot the Seal?

Turn around and there’s another waterfall

We see that support for Ukraine is still with us

and even Donald has joined the cause

We take a short lunch break at Kaikoura, a pretty coastal town and then continue on our way. As we approach the top of a hill we both immediately note literally hundreds of vehicles down below and are so fascinated as to why that we execute a legal u-turn and drive down to see what’s going on. What is revealed is just a lot of horsing around

It’s clearly a classy affair, as demonstrated by the formal attire of the gatesman

We reach another of NZ’s major wine-growing areas, Marlborough. The vines are impeccably pruned in all the vineyards we see here

And then we reach Picton, on the Cook Strait.

It took us longer to drive here than it will to go back to Christchurch for Tuesday’s flight to Wellington. We made many stops, and it’s about 5pm when we check into our motel. We fling our carry on luggage down and walk to town. Almost immediately I sense that this is my kinda town

and it’s evident that it’s her kinda town too

There’s cafes, bars, restaurants and sidewalk tables galore, and not a single one can fit us in. But we eventually find a private guesthouse which has a dining room and even though she doesn’t have a table, she (like Moana in gorgeous Wanaka) took pity on this old woman (I hesitate to use the term lady) and her friend and offered us the high table. We gratefully accepted and perched on the high stools, we enjoyed a meal of fish. It was not perch.

A slap up lunch tomorrow