Tuesday, 26th February 2008
Tonight we have travelled up to Hanmer Springs, a thermal spring/town northwest of Christchurch. We left Mount Cook this morning in quite sunny, clear weather, and we had the delight of seeing Mount Cook absolutely clearly, as well as the surrounding mountains. We travelled down Lake Pukaki and then turned east to follow the base of the lake and then north. All the while, we could see the clear turquoise water of the lake and the beautiful snow covered mountains away to ou left. It's something we'll never forget - glorious! We had an extremely long drive in quite hot weather.
We travelled all over the place today, stymied by a closed bridge over the only bridge in the area, forcing us into Christchurch and route 1, the very place we wanted to avoid. To make up for that, we found a pie shop in a little town called Sheffield - absolutely delicious steak pies etc. Made us feel quite cheerful again.
We finally made it up to Hanmer - a thermal spring town that we're just off to investigate.
Tomorrow, we driving to the coast again to Kaikoura to go out on a boat to see if we can find some whales. After that we drive up the coast to Blenheim where we'll stay for two nights, and we will do an all day wine tour in the Marlborough area. After that, we go up to Picton to get the ferry across to Wellington to start our tour of the north island.
Report on the head - coming along nicely, although he wears a hat most of the time and looks quite dashing!
Love to everyone
Christine and Richard
