Akoroa March 18th

On Sunday we packed everyone up in the van and drove to Akoroa.  It is about a 2 hour drive from Ashburton and is on the peninsula just east of Christchurch.

Akoroa is the only french settlement in New Zealand.  There are a few french names floating around and the streets are all called "Rue" ie we parked on Rue Jolie.  But that is about the extent of the french.  There are no native french speakers (that's the what the tour guide told us) in the area.

While we were there we went on a sailing tour of the harbour with Captain Ray.

As you can see he is telling a fish tail and *gasp* letting Luke drive the boat!  It is a 47 foot sloop and it was a shame the wind the did not blow because it is a racing yacht and it would have been a fabulous sail.  But, it was calm as anything so we  mainly motored (I think Jamie was happy about this, he has not been thrilled with boats so far).  We did get to haul up the mainsail and did a couple of tacks (Matt was happy as this was while he was driving the boat).

Jamie is not a fan of boats but he did decide he liked this one after and hour or so...

On the trip we got to see Hector's dolphin's (I have no idea who Hector is) They are the world's smallest dolphins and tend to live singly or in pairs.

They liked to ride the pressure wave at the front of the boat and this kept the kids (and me) busy going from side to side at the bow to watch them.  Luckily no one fell overboard.

After our 3 hour tour... we headed into town to check out the shops including looking at the Blue Pearls (I did not buy one, maybe next time)  and have dinner.   One nice thing about New Zealand is that the seafood is fabulous!  Matt and I had scallops and the fish special.  The kids ate hamburgers... Some things never change.

Skateboarding March 10th

This weekend was a quiet one spent at home.  The main reason was Adrian wanted to enter a skateboarding competition at the local skate park.
He did not win anything (was competing against 18 year olds) but the pix are kinda cool.

This is why we need new shoes every 2 months, these are 2 weeks old!!

Airborne!!

Hanmer Springs

Hello everyone,  last weekend we made a quick trip to Hanmer Springs.  The plan was to drive up Friday night, stay at one of the holiday parks and do some hiking, enjoy the fabulous views, have lunch and then spend the afternoon at the hot springs and head back because I was on call for Sunday.

Well,  Mother Nature intervened.  About halfway there it started to rain, and rain and rain some more.
I did not take a picture (driving) but was very grateful for the amazing road reflector system in place,  yellow and white demarcating the sides and middle of the road.  As well, there are tenth of a km posts along the sides everywhere (I envision these scattering like toothpicks behind me if I ever need to pull over in a hurry)  these have white reflector markers on the left (your side) and on corners show up yellow on the far side.  Lets you know where the road ends.  The next day driving the same road in daylight... they mean it.

We finally got to our  holiday park, which was literally at the end of the road (turn right here or go into the woods) it was a bit late and the owner had left our key with my name on the bulletin board.  Skeleton key, if you had a collection of various skeleton keys you could break into 3/4 of New Zealand.

We set up house - I had selected a room with a private bathroom and kitchen.  It is worth the extra $20 or so as we have a couple of midnight peeing kids (and mommy, yeah I know).   I did have the forethought to bring a very nice bottle of wine so Matt and I got to relax before we passed out.

Next am,  rain again.  Checked the weather...  supposed to stop (liars btw)  so we cooked up a big breakfast (Adrian had been in bacon withdrawl) and packed up.

Flat Malachi came along and it is a good thing he happens to be waterproof.

 Still raining.  I would have gone hiking it had been just me and Matt but dragging three whiny kids on an hour long hike (1st half up hill) in the rain was just too much to bear.  

We headed into town to the springs.  Ok, this was very nice with the kids, but would be AWESOME without them.  They have a spa, with massages and pedicures and a spa lunch and all those things you do with the girls... sigh...

But enough wishing...  It was raining and damp and chilly and hot springs are seriously nice on a day like that.  We chatted briefly with the photographer dude and he said it is nicer when it is cool rather than stinking hot (his words) .

Each of the pools has a nice canopy over then to protect you from the sun (or rain) but I found it nice to sit in the toasty pool (40C) and let the cool rain hit my face.

Adrian actually had a good time, he just did not want his picture taken (worried about the dude's camera I guess, how thoughtful) and for those of you who think he looks like Matt...  you have never seen my brother at age 15.  Scary!

There is also a kids pool and waterslides, but Jamie was too short and it was too cold for that kind of play, perhaps next summer?

At that point we gave up on the weather clearing and heading back.

Everyone keeps telling me they get snow where we are.  Then I see these signs and laugh.  These are the roadsigns on the side of the highway and are about waist high on me.  Can you say buried?  If we had signs like this at home you'd get soooooooo lost.  However,  the roadworks dudes would stay busy in the spring replacing them,  job security.

We headed into Christchurch because Matt wanted to go to Vino Fino which had just reopened after the earthquakes.  Getting anywhere in downtown Christchurch at the moment is a whole lot of "you can't get there from here"  3/4 of the downtown streets are shut down, detoured and one way.   One of these days I'm going to go into town sans family and tour around a bit.  The remains of the cathedral are slated to be torn down soon and I would like to see it before that happens.

But... Vino Fino is open now (just for a week!) and is amazing.  Plus we found out they deliver to Ashburton for a measly 8 bucks!  With petrol/gas at $2.16 a litre right now that is a great deal!
After buying (only)  12 bottles of wine and some gin and rum... we went for lunch and drove home to Ashburton.  Where the sun was shining...  Figures.