NZ 2026

 We have not really come up with anything to do today, so it looks like we'll mooch around the airport until our flight this afternoon - made easier now we have a late, midday checkout. We'll still have to return the car and then hang around until we can check in. It has been foggy this morning but we can still watch planes taking off and saw a USAF Hercules here on exercises. Fortunately the time difference works for us this way. We don't leave here until mid-afternoon but will get home around 8pm.

 Today was all about the drive back from Nelson to Christchurch - and it took up pretty much the whole day. We checked out about 9.30am and headed east. This was quite windy, through the mountains to Blenheim. On the way we stopped at Hevelock at the head of Pelarus Sound, which turned out to be a pretty town with nice galleries. Then we carried on to Blenheim, where we again stopped to stretch our legs and walked around a market and visitor centre. At this point the road turns south along the coast. It's less windy and easier driving. At one point we stopped for a break and found there was a sea lion nursery, granite rocks with lots of protected pools containing sea lion pups, some with their mothers. Ohau Point Part way down the east coast we stopped at Kaikoura for lunch and to walk up and down the main street for a while. It's a busy seaside holiday town in the high season but fortunately was a bit quieter today.  Just south of Kaikoura we stopped at a pebbly beach with gr...

 We woke to a greyer and wetter Nelson this morning. This was a particular problem because we'd largely run out of things to do already. There are plenty of other places to go in the broader district, but we didn't really want to drive a couple of hours to get somewhere. Fortunately, Lynn thought to go to the motor museum, one of the few local indoor attractions. And it was better and more interesting than we extected. As we were leaving, Lynn spotted a group of shops across the road and we spent some time walking about and looking at things before we went back to our hotel for lunch. In the afternoon we were fortunate to spot a gap in the rain and walked up to the shopping district to stretch our legs. In the evening we went to a Thai restaurant, Nahm, on the waterfront and had an excellent meal, though most of the meals throughout our trip have been great.

 Grey and wet today when we woke. This was not a surprise and why we went to Abel Tasman yesterday, while the weather held. I think we have been lucky that it has stayed fine as long as it has. This was a good excuse for a fairly quiet day, going out late. We drive up to Moutere, north east of Nelson. This is the centre of the local wine district. It turned out that Upper Moutere was very small, only 4-5 buildings. We went in to a couple of craft shops and had a coffee, then went to Heaphy Vineyard for wine tasting and lunch before driving back to Nelson.

 Today was an outing to Abel Tasman National Park - I think this is one of the things people particularly come to Nelson for. So we drove north along the coast the Kaiteriteri, which is nat the southern end of the park and where everyone leaves from. It turns out that the park is quite rugged, with thickly wooded mountains, so the walking is all along the coast and there are several companies with boats that essentially shuttle people to various bays and beaches. Looking out on Kaiteriteri We booked a boat at 12.45 which took us up to Medlands Bay. It was grey and overcast but reasonably warm. Medlands Bay We got off here and walked over the headland to Bark Bay and back. Weka are plentiful From there we re-traced our steps - we were picked up by the same boat on its way back from the top of the park and cruised for an hour back to Kaiteriteri, stopping at a couple of other beaches, then drove back to Nelson.

 As our first day in Nelson we decided to look around the town. It's a decent size, but there's not really that much here and I think we've exhausted the town now (unless we want to go to the peanut butter museum). We started off driving the few blocks into the middle of town and parking by the Queen's Gardens. These were small but surprisingly pretty. Right next to the gardens was the Sutter Gallery and so we looked at their decent but not amazing exhibitions and then went the few blocks to the main shopping street and mall. We stopped in the local museum, which was small and mostly just told stories of the local area but did a good job of it., At the top of the street there are steps up to a surprisingly ugly cathedral. Having seen everything in the centre of town we retreated to our room to recover and have lunch. In the afternoon we drove a way north to Cable Bay. There wasn't very much there, but it's an attractive spot and we walked up to the lookout. That...

 Today was essentially driving. We checked out of our hotel in Christchurch, filled up with petriol and drove to Nelson. There are a couple of routes - through the mountains, or around the coast. So we decided to go via the mountains (a few minutes shorter) and come back along the coast. It was about a six hour drive and that should be okay but honestly it felt pretty long. The whole drive was scenic. Essentially along broad, often farmed valleys between high peaks. Though when you're in that scenery it can be hard to find a particular photo. The whole thing is impressive but when you try to find a single view the scale and sweep seems lost. The best I could do - near Hanmer Springs We stopped a few times to stretch our legs, including in Murchison where we spent a week, fifteen years ago while I was kayaking. Neither of us could remember anything about the town which is sparse and nondescript. By the time we reached Nelson I was very ready to stop. We're staying at The Sails, ...

 Our last real day in Christchurch, so we thought we'd explore so local things we'd missed so far. Fortunately, being a small place, everything was within a few blocks of us. The first stop was the earthquake museum. This was pretty small, but had videos, explainers about how earthquakes work etc and some memorabilia from the events 15 years ago. This was all decent quality, but I'm not sure it warranted the $25 admission - though I suppose that's what everything costs now. Next was the temporary museum - while the main museum is being rebuilt. So it is smaller and just had a few highlight exhibits. There was also a decent exhibition about dinosaurs. It was mostly casts rather than actual fossils, but that doesn't really make much difference. After this we went to the art centre just a block or so away. This had some galleries and a number of shops. We ended up buying a few things, so we had a light lunch and then took the bags back to the hotel to drop them off and...

 After exploring close to town yesterday we decided on an outing to the Banks Peninsula today. This is a small, mountainous, volcanic protrusion on the coast just south of Christchurch; because the coast here is very shallow, Lyttelton is the main deep water harbour for the town, reached by a tunnel through the hills. When we got to Lyttelton there was some sort of event on and in our drive through the town we couldn't fina a single park. So we drove on around Lyttelton Harbour, which was very pretty, to Diamond Harbour, more or less directly across from Lyttelton. Here we bought an icecream and walked down the hill to the wharf and ferry terminal.                                          From there we drove to Akaroa. I relied on Google to find the most direct route, which turned out to be initially a narrow and winding dirt track. Fortunately we didn't encounter any other cars...

 It was pretty cold (about 17 degrees) and grey today, always threatening to rain but not quite getting there. Which is not too bad for getting out and about. This morning we went out on ebikes - apparently a half day hire was included in our room package, which we didn't know until we got here. Fortunately, the Avon River runs very close to the hotel - just a narrow block away (to both the east and the west of us, and we're sitting in a long bend). So we went west to Hagley Park and then rode along the river, past the botanic gardens in a loop. With the wind on us it was actually very cold, but still fun. Along the Avon After dropping Lynn back at the hotel I went out again and followed the river east towards the sea for some distance, until it was too cold and I turned back and looped down through the middle of the town; there are lots of bike paths and its flat everywhere, so goot for riding. For lunch we went down to the coast at New Brighton. The seaside holiday strip was ...

 After exploring Christchurch a bit yesterday, we decided to get out of town and have a drive. So we headed west to Arthur's Pass. This is a path through the mountains to the west coast. It's a bit over two hours from Christchurch. About the first half of that is through the Canterbury plains behind Christchurch which is mostly farmland. Then you climb steeply along the side of some hills and come out on a plateau in the highlands - which reminded me very much of the Scottish highlands in scale, dotted with lakes and granite outcroppings. Castle Hill When we reached Arthur's Pass there was very little there - a visitor information centre, railway station and a couple of cafes. And no real side roads, because it's a pass. But we went on a little further and found some lookout points. On the way back in to Arthur's Pass we stopped on the north side of the road and walked up to the Devil's Punchbowl, a waterfall on one of the gorges reached by a winding and stepped...

 So, day one of our latest holiday. Technically as conference trip, but we'll be honest here. And we're already in Christchurch. Yesterday was our travelling day and it was too boring to warrant an actual blog entry. Our flight out wasn't until 2.20pm which was surprisingly civilised given the more common very early morning departures, and the airports were correspondingly quieter. There was a quick, uneventful flight to Melbourne, then about two and a half hours that felt a lot longer hanging around the airport before another flight to Christchurch. We arrived about 12.30 in the morning. Fortunately it's a small but well organised airport and we sailed through, collected our hire car (Subaru Outback) and drove through quiet, leafy suburbs to the Hotel Montreal. We were in our room by 1.30am. So today... we woke up at 9am which is 6.30 at home, so probably as good a transition as we could hope for. It turns out to be a pleasant and small hotel. Our room is large but sti...