Where in the World is Saura

Mom and Dad arrived safely in Christchurch Monday morning as Alan and I eagerly waited at the wrong terminal. Luckily we realized our mistake quickly and ran over to the international terminal for a long awaited reunion. We were so focused on just spending time together on the first day that we forgot to take any pictures, but we have since made up for that.

Arrival and First Two Days in Christchurch

Monday turned into a lovely day, sunny and warm. We walked around the neighborhood and fed the ducks at the park in the morning, then took a picnic lunch to the botanic gardens in the afternoon along with Al’s mom. Mom and Dad were troopers and managed to stay awake til about 10PM Monday night. It helped that it doesn’t get dark until 9:30 or 10 o’clock, so they didn’t even realize how late it really was. Tuesday was Mom’s first shopping day, so we strolled around the shops downtown while Dad and Al mucked around in a few music shops. We went out to dinner that night with Al’s dad, which was very good, then went to a pub for drinks and some live music.

That brings us to Wednesday when we packed up the van and took our first road trip out of town to Lake Coleridge. The scenery was even more striking than our past visits. The hills were greener, many of the shrubs were blooming with bright yellow flowers and soft pink wild roses. Dad chatted with a woman who has come to Lake Coleridge for 40 years and she said the area has had unusually high rainfalls and it certainly showed.

We camped in a little cove of shrubs that sheltered us from the winds, so we were able to relax and enjoy the very peaceful site. I know Mom and Dad were really awed by it all. Its just a unique landscape that you certainly don’t see in the southern United States. Its equally as spectacular at night since there is no light pollution whatsoever and the sky is filled with layer upon layer of twinkling stars. Before we turned in for the night, Dad, Al and I went out and did alittle stargazing. At the time there were a few clouds blocking the Milky Way and the Southern Cross, but Dad was amazed nonetheless. Of course within ten minutes of him going to bed the sky completely cleared and the entire night sky, Milky Way and all, came into crystal clear view. It is really a sight to behold and hopefully we’ll get other chances while travelling around the South Island to view such a magnificent starry night.

Lake Coleridge 13-14 Dec. 2006

We returned to Christchurch Thursday and rested. The folks are holding up really well despite travelling through so many time zones, but I think they were alittle tired at this point. Dad finally got to watch some cricket and I did my best to answer his slew of questions while Al was out playing tennis. That night we treated Mom and Dad to their first Kiwi fish and chips dinner, a longstanding New Zealand tradition.

Well, that brings us to today. We did alittle more shopping and ran some errands to prepare for our camping trip to the Abel Tasman. We’re going to the Saturday markets tomorrow morning and we have a few things planned with Al’s family the rest of the day. Then we leave for Nelson on Sunday, so we’ll share those pictures and stories when we get back next week.

Kia Kite!

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 14th, 2006 at 10:13 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.