Christchurch

We left the quiet of Moeraki behind and headed up the coast for Christchurch. The drive is about 1/3 of the length of the South Island, but this part of the east coast is pretty flat driving, a relief. After several stops for gas and finding our credit cards wouldn’t work, we were directed to a Z petrol station, which was a surprisingly pleasant stop! Super friendly clerk helped us sort out a discount card for gas and made some excellent flat white coffees. And pies, gas station vegetarian pies. I don’t know about anyone else, but I wouldn’t drink coffee or eat any heated foods from a US gas station! There are no photos of any pies, they seem to get eaten before I can photograph them. Further along the way we stopped for groceries, a new shaver, and I found a yarn shop.

Our Airbnb in Christchurch was a small townhouse, at the end of a little drive and surprisingly quiet for a city apartment. Weather was cool and quite blustery, so we didn’t make it to the botanic gardens. Took a drive to nearby Rangiora in search of a yarn shop, a cup of coffee and some apple pie.

Yarn and vinyl shops were also visited in Christchurch. (Do we detect some themes?) Found some lovely merino wool from a farm quite near Christchurch and only available at that one shop or by mail order.

We attempted to explore the Banks Peninsula and drive to Akaroa, a lovely harbor far out in this rugged volcanic peninsula. But the road was so narrow and winding that we only drove until we had a beautiful view of the harbors and turned around! Friends have said the road gets better after that point, but repeating that 90 minutes going back seemed too painful. Beautiful views though.

And then our South Island trip was over. The flight to Napier on the North Island went smoothly on a small propeller plane with great views of the coast. A delightful experience in many NZ airports is the lack of security screening for domestic flights. Just check your bags and walk to the gate. Landing in Napier, an even smaller airport, was just as simple.Read more