Saturday, April 19, 2014

Flight home to Spain


21st March Friday
Had about 10 hours sleep so feeling ok at the moment. Malcolm brought us tea in bed. Getting ready for our final flight home this afternoon. On the flight to Malaga we had our first delay of the holiday as someone had allowed a person on the flight from standby and the seat was already occupied but it was only delayed by 15 minutes. Arrived safely at Malaga and we were picked up by a friend. It was great to see our dog Scoobie again after 5 weeks she had been spoiled by our friends and not sure if she was that happy to be returning to bootcamp(thats our house). It took us about 5 days to recover from jet lag but we had enjoyed a great holiday.

Flight back to UK


19th March Wednesday
Early wake up at 7:15 had breakfast to use up the remaining food that we had and waited for lift to airport, got to airport with plenty of time to check-in. Had coffee to use up some New Zealand dollars and sent some messages from phone. Just managed to read the magazine during the 1 hour 20 minute flight to Auckland. Picked up luggage and went for a 600 meter walk following the green line from Domestic to International terminal (good job it wasn't raining). Queuing to check-in for our flight to Sydney at 12:15 no rush as the flight is not due to leave until 14:10 no worries. We had a short wait in Auckland and we were going to have a coffee to use the last of the New Zealand cash. We had $3.70 left and Chris did a search of the airport to buy one but they were all more expensive. As we went to the boarding gate later to get on the flight we had to go upstairs and passed a Burger King where we could have got a coffee for $3.20. Flight to Sydney was fine we had a meal and they gave us an icecream the first of the holiday. We only had a short wait for out flight to London. We had a stopover for refueling at Dubai and during the flight we had 2 more meals, one included another icecream, tried to sleep and lost track of time of day. The stopover was short and we got back on the plane into the same seats. We settled down for our last flight of the day(s) a 7 hour flight to Heathrow. Arrived safely after having another 2 meals. Taxi driver arrived on time and we got to Chris's brother Malcolm without any problem. Went for a little walk and had lunch with Malcolm. Latter had dinner and some nice wine kindly provided by Malcolm the wine connoisseur before going to bed at 9pm as we were shattered.

Goodbye Tiny


18th March Tuesday
Left site at 10 am drove to North South Holiday Park were we are staying for our last night of our stay in New Zealand. Booked a lift to the airport at 8:30 am the next day to the airport to give us time to check in for our flight. Tried to check in on-line from the campsite but were not able to. Went to airport and asked a girl at check-in if everything was OK as we could not check-in on-line and she said that it would be no problem and we could checkin tomorrow as it was open until 9:50 not 8:50 as it said on the website. Went back to campsite had lunch and went for a little walk around a resovior to get some fresh air before being cooped up on a plane for days. Took Tiny back which they check over and found that all was OK and we had not damaged it. They drove us back to the campsite to our deluxe cabin on the campsite where we showered and watched a film and had a nice bottle of New Zealand wine.


Christchurch


17th March Monday
Sun was shinning again today so we drove into town parked up and did a tour of the sites in Christchurch center, but a lot has been demolished by the earthquake. We managed to see enough in about 3 hours. We walked round a route from the lonely planet guide then found a nice cafe on the river Avon where you could hire a punt down the river. We resisted the temptation and just had a coffee. We walked around some gardens which were beautiful and part of them went along the river where we passed a punt on which someone was playing a guitar and singing. We ended up at the new cathedral made of cardboard because the old one was badly damaged by the earthquake and it was really good. We went back to Tiny and found a campsite for the night at Spencer Beach Holiday Park as the name suggests it was close to the beach so we had a walk there and it was what is said on the tin a beach nothing else. We went back to Tiny and took food and phone to the kitchen to cook and charge respectively. After dinner we went back to Tiny to play cards. After the first game I remembered that I had left the mobile phone charging in the kitchen, so I sprinted over there and luckily it was still there phew it would have been a disaster had it been stolen as we had taken over 400 pictures of the holiday. Played a couple more games of cards then slept the last night in Tiny as we had to take her back the next day.








Friday, April 18, 2014

Travelling back to Christchuch


16th March Sunday
It was raining as forecast so had breakfast and started on our journey to Christchurch. On the way out of Lake Tekapo we visited a small church which was very pretty and the statue of a border collie which was in recognition of the work that the dogs do with the sheep in that area.

The road was mostly straight and dull with nothing for miles not even trees. Still raining stopped at Geraldine for a coffee and managed to get wifi so sent some messages home. Drove to Christchurch to South New Brighton to book into a cabin for the night but they were full so we went to another site called All Seasons Holiday Park where we managed to get an en suite cabin. Had lunch watched 2 films (still raining)had dinner and went to bed. Not a very exciting day.

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Mount Cook


15th March Saturday
Walked the Hooker Trail from Tiny to Lake Hooker and back about 3 hours, it was a beautiful walk with views of Muellers glacier on the way up to the lake and there were small icebergs floating on the lake from Mount Cook, got some great photos. Had a coffee when we got back then started our journey to our next destination which was Lake Tekapo. Before we left we went into Mount Cook village and looked round the I-site which had some displays on climbers and historical information of the area. We continued our journey but stopped at a visitors center where we could have bought fresh salmon caught in lake Pukaki. We had just made lunch when a man parked beside us who lived in Nottingham but came from Oldham, his son lived in Christchurch. We drove to Lake Tekapo and booked on the campsite. We were not that impressed but there was only one campsite so that was it. We walked into the village to the I-site and checked the weather for the next day and it was rain all over the south island . We decided to travel to Christchurch the next day.




Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Oamaru


14th March Friday
Left the site






and went to Te Kaihinaki (ancient boulders) on the beach nearby that can only be seen at low tide (which it was). After clambering over them for a bit we started our drive to Mount Cook stopping off at Oamaru first at the public gardens which were lovely then walked up the main street and had a coffee and sent a few messages from the phone as it had wifi. We went round a beautiful building which had been a bank but was now the Forrester Gallery and spoke to the lady on reception who said that she had lived in the house when she was younger as her father was the bank manager. We went to the Harbour-Tyne historic precinct which contained shops,craft centers, antiques & herbalists and also on old building with a train outside and a lot of metal sculptures which was very weird. We carried on driving until we got to Kurow where we stopped to buy fish and chips for lunch.  We were staying at a doc site tonight and would not be able to cook dinner. We arrived at Mount Cook and got a place on the campsite and did a small walk to the Alpine remembrance stone and took some photos of Mount Cook. We sat in the sun until it went behind the mountains at 6pm and it got cold.