I am very conscious that I have not included enough garden and flower shots in my blog about Akaroa so here are two more (to avoid being in trouble with the LLW) before we move on in the camper van and I move on with the blog.
Today will be a long drive because firstly we must head back to Christchurch and drop the bikes off at the Natural High depot which is close to the airport. Then we will head south getting as close to Queenstown as we can, so that it is an easy and quick drive tomorrow when we must drop off the camper van, pick up a hire car and drive to Wanaka where we will check in to our apartment for the next two weeks.
We left at 07:15 and the first part of the drive is the hardest being mountainous, slow with lots of tight corners. However, it was relatively quiet and easy this morning and we then sped along the second section through the suburbs of Christchurch with the SatNav providing an excellent quick and quiet route. We arrived at 08:50, ten minutes before they were due to open and a young lady from Devon quickly checked in the bikes, helped us fold and secure the bike carrier and then we were on our way south.
The first part of the drive south is through the Canterbury Plains and is one of the few uninteresting parts of NZ as well as being one of the busiest. However, it was quick and we soon found ourselves in Ashburton where we stopped for the now mandatory coffee and cake. As a side note on NZ coffee shops, we note that they are appear to be ndividually owned, very well run and the quality of the food and coffee is top class. A nice change from the coffee chains which now seem to dominate the UK.
Shortly after Ashburton we turned off the main highway and headed inland to Geraldine and Fairlie after which we climbed into the alpine areas. The weather had been dull with some rain and whilst it brightened quite a lot once we were in the mountains, the sun only showed its face very sporadically.
On a previous trip we had experienced the wonderful spectacle of thousands of lupins in full bloom around the lakes of Tekapo and Pukaki, and had hoped that we would see this again. However, we were just too late win the season and whilst they were in evidence, full bloom was well over. Fear not! There will be more on lupins shortly.
As always the alpine lakes go Tekapo and Pukaki are spectacular but the shimmering blue of the lakes was very muted today because the sun refused to shine and a cold wind made it seem cooler that the 21C indicated by the gauge on the camper van. The lakes looked mean and moody at times but of course the LLW looked as lovely as ever!
We stopped for a while at the southern end of both lakes, having one of the LLW's lunch specials at Pukaki. As always there were lots of visitors admiring the views.
On then past the towns of Twizel and Oamara (a tea stop was deemed necessary here) and across the arid flat plateau until we reached the start of the climb to the Lindis Pass, when suddenly there were lupins everywhere. Hundreds of thousands of them in all imaginable lupin colours. They were a magnificent site particularly framed by the green peaks surrounding the pass.
On then and down to the Lindis Valley and eventually Lake Dunston which at the northern end is only about 12Km from Cromwell; just over 500Km in the day which is very good going in a camper van. The camp site had space for us and we were soon parked and contemplating where we might have dinner. Cromwell is surrounded by vineyard and orchards and many of these establishments have good restaurants but they tend to be open only until about 5pm. Additionally it is a Monday so we were aware that many more would not be open today. We agreed that the best bet would be to drive to the central shopping area and have a look at what was on offer. A pub, an international style restaurant and a Thai one were viewed but the management committee unanimously agreed on a Indian which looked to be quite popular. It turned out to be a very good choice.
I must comment upon the bizarre NZ weather. Most of the day it has been cloudy and feeling cool as a result of a chilly wind. However, just before 7pm as we were wandering around looking at restaurants, the sun came out, the wind dropped and the temperature climbed almost instantaneously to 29C and it has stayed close to this temperature right up to the present time of 9pm.
Its a sad day tomorrow as the camper van will be handed back to Maui; once again we have had a wonderful time travelling around NZ and are both very much of the opinion that this is the best way to do it.
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