Christchurch: Day Ninety-Five (22 January)

This morning we watched the state funeral for Sir Edmund Hillary on television and then we had to arrange for the car windscreen to be fixed. Fortunately Amberley isn’t too far away from Christchurch where we’d hired the car as we ended up having to return it and get a replacement one. (The windscreen crack proved too severe to fix).

So we said goodbye to Dippy (our nickname for the Mazda) and hello to Dora (our replacement Toyota).

We returned to Amberley and had another pleasant evening catching up with our friends.

Barnaby

Amberley: Day Ninety-Four (21 January)

Today we were heading towards Amberley, which is where New Zealand friends of Miss Robb’s Mummy live. This took us from the West to the East Coast of the South Island via Buller Gorge and Lewis Pass, where we had lunch.

On the way we stopped at Hanmer Springs where there are natural hot thermal pools. Lovely after so many hours in the car. Morris and I didn’t go in the water (the hottest pools are 40 degrees Celcius and above) but we enjoyed lounging alongside.

Unfortunately on the way to Amberley a lorry threw up a stone and chipped the car windscreen but we made it our motel safely. Our friends had relatives staying so couldn’t put us up but we had a lovely evening with them and they showed us a bit of Amberley.

Barnaby