August 15, 2005
Today, La Verne said that she thought she'd consumed more wine than water the last 2 days. That might not be that far from the truth.
The drive into Christchurch would take about 2 and a half hours, so we took our time in the morning, hoping to get into Christchurch by noon or so. For breakfast, we stopped off at the Potbelly Bakery, a nice WARM breakfast joint and grabbed a flat white and apple turnover for me, a long black and scone for Jack.
I drove half of the way down to the Christhurch area, and as we entered the Canterbury region, we started passing some wineries. This prompted Jack to grab our wine map to see what this wine growing region was all about. We decided to stop off at this place called the French Farm winery for lunch and a tasting. On the map, it didn't seem too far from Christchurch, being on a peninsula fringed by the ocean. But how to get there? Without any detailed directions through the area, we soon found ourselves going through slow local roads and a long tunnel which dumped us out in a small, picturesque town called Lyttleton. We stopped off at the tourist info office and learned that we were way off the trail, and the drive out to the peninsula would actually take about 2 hours. Since the detour had already taken us an hour, we decided just to head back into Christchurch, which, it turned out, on the highway, was only a 20 minute drive. By this point, we were both starving and getting crabby. Jack bought me a roll of mentos at a gas station and I ate them all in one sitting.
We ended up booking some activites for our time in Queenstown. First, a tour to Milford Sound which takes you by small plane over the southern alps, includes a cruise in the fjords, and drives you back by coach to explore some of the lakes along the way. We also booked our bungy jump!! It's now or never, and there's no turning back! And as I write this, oh my gosh, we're jumping tomorrow!!! eek!
Here are some scenes of beautiful Christchurch- the cathedral in the center of town is actually called Christ's Church. The town was set up to be not just another missionary outpost, but an example of anglican culture and style. As a result, the city has a very English feel to it. We also thought it reminded us a bit of Boston.
Even though it has a lot of old, colonial style architecture, there are also some interesting pieces of art on the streets.
After roaming the streets and doing some shopping, we took a city bus up to the gondola base station, and hopped in a gondola, like a ski gondola, which took us to a point high above the city for a great view.
Check out these views! The small town on the edge of the water is actually Lyttleton, the port that we accidentally drove through this morning. As we watched the sun set over the city, suddenly, the city lights turned on in Christchurch. What great timing!
We caught our bus back into town, and after dropping things off at our YHA hostel, we headed over to Ebisu, a Japanese izukaya, which was featured in our Lonely Planet guide. The cozy little restaurant was virtually empty except for one other couple, and we warmed ourselves with some hot sake and udon soup. Also going into our stomachs on this evening were edamame, sashimi of new zealand fish, rice balls grilled in soy sauce, and chicken yakitori grilled with green onions. Yum!
As we headed back to our hostel, we passed the Arch of Remembrance, which seems to be some type of a war tribute to different countries that have served in battle... although the U.S. wasn't on it. In general, it seems like the kiwis have mixed feelings about Americans.
Oh, and what's this? A fireplace blazing in the window attracted us to a wine bar that was around the corner from our hostel. Well, one glass of wine before bed sounds like a nice way to round out the evening.
Kaikoura in the morning- we woke up to this incredible scene outside our window... alpine mountains covered in snow, brilliant sunshine, and the Pacific Ocean! We didn't know the mountains were so close, since we arrived into town after dark. What a nice treat.
Eventually, we made it over to the city centre, where all the action is, found a cool little street lined with cafes and restaurants, plopped ourselves down at the sidewalk patio of a cafe called the Viaduct and ordered ourselves a big, thin-crust, margherita pizza and a warm bowl of butternut squash soup with ginger. Yum! Here's me chowing down.
Feeling rejuvenated, we were ready to explore Christchurch. Our first stop was the tourist info center, where I found myself surrounded by one of my great loves, free travel brochures! I took a small stack to add to my personal library which is growing daily. 
