Today's Headline-"Gale Winds Ferocious"

Yep, the winds could get worse than Auckland. The headlines today are all about the storm yesterday. The winds reached 160kph, and that's 10kph stronger than last week in Auckland, or the difference between 90 and 96mph. Nice. I thought it was a little concerning. Some poor guy was standing under a tree, which fell over and crushed him, but that was the only fatality.

Anyway, we left our troubles behind and boarded the ferry at 8am, crossing to Picton. The crossing of Cook Strait, between the North and South islands of New Zealand, takes about 3 hours. The ferry is huge. We were parked with many other camper vans and several semi-trucks. That's a big boat! We took off on time and arrived as scheduled, then headed down highway 1 toward Christchurch.

Our first stop was in Kiakoura. We went to the South Beach, but the hiking trail was closed. We were going to leave but thought we would try the hiking trail on the other side of the bay. It was lucky that we went back, as there is a fur seal colony there, and it was close to shore, due to low tide. We watched them play for a while, took a lot of pictures, then went back to the beach. As I turned around, the sky was just starting to clear, and above the ocean was a snow-covered peak. It was a great photo. Plus, we were ecstatic to see the sun. I think I'm starting to get scurvy (or whatever it is when you don't get enough sun).

We also saw red footed seagulls, which reminded me of my dog. The rest of the day was spent in the campa, trying to enjoy the sunshine and the fabulous landscape. I think that New Zealand was once full of trees, and they all turned into sheep.

We arrived in Christchurch at about 7pm and went straight to dinner. Kim picked an eclectic kind of place and we ordered a curry dish, which seemed simple enough. What we got, I don't know, but with vegetarian I wasn't too worried.

I forgot! I got Kim in the driver's seat today. We both agreed it was best I continue to drive, lest we both start wearing Depends.

Tomorrow we hope to get to Omoaru and see fairy penguins.Read more