And We're Off! Today we are writing from ChristChurch.
Mom's Story
We're writing to you from Christchurch, NZ. Had a bit of fun traveling
as they cancelled our flight from JFK to LAX. Luckily we got to JFK early, we
had a nice limo ride, and then were able to switch to an earlier flight. Of
course there was a really long layover at LAX because of a Chicago flight that
was delayed with 38 people trying to catch the Auckland flight. Confused yet?
So we were 2 hours late into Auckland, missing the first 2 flights we were on
to Christchurch. But we got here, climbed the church Bell Tower (133 steep
steps 100 feet up!) and saw the aquarium and a bit of the city. We bought Ben
an awesome new backpack at a store that was just opened two days ago, and had a
gourmet dinner at our hotel. I had the spiced lamb (coriander, cumin were two
flavors I picked out) with couscous and asparagus. Dan and Ben went for the
Cervena, their venison. Also excellent. Jacq went for comfort:Nachos.
We
celebrated Jacq's 8th birthday in style on the JFK to LAX plane; they feted her
with an ice cream sundae and Mrs. Fields cookies; plus got the flight
attendants to sing Happy Birthday, as well as the rest of the passengers who
were kibbutzing in the back galley. Then the captain announced her birthday on
the PA just before we landed in LA. All in all, marvelous so far. Check the
website in a few days for pictures and stories; took lots of digital pix today!
Mom's Story
We've had a very nice day; it started off with a lovely breakfast. The
kids chose scrambled eggs, bacon & hash browns. Dan had apricot/hazelnut
waffles, and I had hapuka, the local grouper. Yum. All you fish lovers out
there should be jealous! Then we did some photo editing, so there are now some
pix on the web. Walked the Botanic Gardens in Christchurch with new found
friends we met on the very long plane ride from LA-Auckland. We missed the same
flight to Christchurch together, so caught the next one together. Had lunch at
a place Karen (of Karen and Bonnie) recommended and then commenced a 3 hour
drive to the next destination, Kaikoura. Drove through lots of farmland and saw
sheep, cervena (local deer grown for venison) and cows. Very hilly terrain,
with lots of switchbacks at a couple of points. Then an absolutely stunning
view of the water as we came down the mountain. Unfortunately we weren't able
to take a picture as we were driving 100kph! We took lots when we got down to
the water, however. Kaikoura is a very small town, right on the water. We went
to the seal colony, and saw lots of seals. We climbed this steep hilly trail
and had a spectacular view of ocean, rocks and seals. We spied one seal just
around from where we'd walked that was close to the beaten path. All the others
had been across a bit of water. So we trekked back down and over the rocks to
the lone seal and took lots of pictures. Unfortunately the digital camera got
dropped when Dan was handing it to me and landed in a tidal pool. We're still
waiting for it to dry out to see if it is salvageble. I felt really bad about
dropping it; I didn't have a good enough grip. So the website pix may be a bit
limited from now on.
Luckily we had brought both cameras so I was able to
get some good photos with the Canon. They can be posted when we return and get
them developed. We returned back to our motel, which is a splendid, two level
room, with two bedrooms; one king, one with two doubles upstairs, and the
living/dining/kitchen downstairs. This would be a lovely apartment in NYC! Very
spacious. The nice lady who runs the place recommended a marvelous place for
dinner so went there and pigged out again. Imagine that! Dan and I had the
local crawfish; very tasty, and the kids had lemon chicken. Desserts were
marvelous as well; Jacq had fun with dipping strawberries in chocolate sauce
and Ben opted for Blackberry covered cheesecake, made with ricotta. Dan and I
split waffles with peach ice cream on top of a mango coulis. Good thing we
hiked a little! There are some amusing language differences. The waitress asked
Dan if he wanted his coffee black or white, and he had to think a minute to
know what she meant. Also they call zuchinni: courgettes (I think that's how
it's spelled). The people here are sooo nice and very accomodating and
polite.
We are still feeling a bit tired from the journey, but good
overall. We seem to have adjusted to the time without too much difficulty.
We're off early in the morning to hopefully put on wetsuits and swim with dusky
dolphins!
