We have some crepes for breakfast and begin to make a plan for the day. Nicola had graciously offered to be our tour guide for the day on Saturday but upon calling her at home, she was ‘under the weather’ from the night before… So we braved it on our own. We packed up some clothes and a day bag and threw all three boys, Nicholas Jacob and Aston in the car and headed out for a tour of the countryside.
We headed to the deep south on the ring road to a community called Sumner. It had steep high hills overlooking the ocean. We stopped along the sea a couple of times to take photos and video and ended up at the Cave Rock- an outcropping into the inlet where we did some climbing and took more photos and video. After an hour of exploring, we bought a couple of drinks and drove into the centre of the area to a fish n chips shop. We got the family pack special and enough fries for a family of 10! It was a beautiful day though quite windy. We had a great meal and headed off again for a longer tour. We took a slight detour and went over the hills and way up some steep cliffs on a single lane road teetering over the edge to get some great views. We stopped at the top for some more great views and to watch a hang glider take off and soar overhead. The views were completely and absolutely stunning and near indescribable. The color of the ocean was much like you see in resorts around the world that takes your breath away – a bright azure color that changes and shimmers depending on the depth of the water. The views were absolutely incredible and though I would have loved to just sit and admire them for an hour while reading a book, the car was full of people who were scared of heights and not too ecstatic about admiring the view for more than a whopping two minutes.
We travelled back down the cliffs and around the hills alongside all the fjords into the next community called Littleton. There were some amazing little shops around the town built into the hillside though many were closed as it was New Year’s Day. We headed back to the main part of the city through a giant underground tunnel that took over a minute to drive through. Amazing invention. We headed to the city central to take some photos of all the places we had been the previous evening downtown near the giant Anglican church and the centre square. The stage had been completely dismantled and everything was tidied up and back to normal. We got Krista a Starbucks Chai Latte and did some shopping at a few souvenir shops that were severely overpriced. We decided to wait for the markets to open on Sunday morning to see if there were better deals to be had.
We proceeded over to Mike and Fiona’s house for an afternoon BBQ. The boys were glad to find a trampoline and an X-box to play on even though the weather was quite improved. We had a great visit as Kim and Jim came as well as Chris and Michaela. Fiona and Mike prepared a feast of steak, lamb, sausages and salads galore for us to eat. After a great supper and amazing desserts of ice cream with various fruit and a pavlova cake, we settled in for some brilliant conversation and sharing of stories. We called it a night after 9 and headed back to Chris’ flat to get the kids to bed and watch some TV. The girls managed to convince us to watch the Time Travellers Wife and headed off to bed at Midnight. Another great day in NZ and more adventures tomorrow.
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