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A stopover in one of New Zealand's more interesting towns - it seems to have a lot of these, actually - and a trip to Akaroa.

Slow Road to Timaru

We had lots of wind and rain overnight and neither of us slept particularly well, so it was slow going this morning. The weather was actually quite sunny and warm, once we got going, but we didn't stop to enjoy it much, as we were mainly retracing our steps for most of the day.

Also, Tom seems to have picked up a bit of a stomach bug, which meant that our priority was to get to our motel in Timaru and get him settled in bed as soon as possible. This seems to have helped a little, but we are both ready for a nice quiet night IN tonight!

Sorry this is the most uneventful page as yet, but we will be in Christchurch and Akaroa area tomorrow and should have a much more exciting report from there.

Off to Akaroa!

A stopover in one of New Zealand's more interesting towns - it seems to have a lot of these, actually - and a trip to Akaroa.

We both had a fairly restless night, so didn't really bother staying around Timaru for long. It will be nice to get the chance to come back this way again and really check it out, as there are some interesting things to see and do in the area.

We were greeted by a beautiful sunrise over Caroline Bay this morning and made a nice early start towards Christchurch and beyond. This gave us time for a couple of refreshing rest stops along the way, rather than just rushing ahead to our next stop...Okains Bay, near Akaroa.

We travelled mainly in warm sun, but encountered a bit of cloud not too far from Christchurch. It didn't last long, though, and only caught up with us again much later in the afternoon. We drove into Christchurch, but neither of us felt much like stopping, so carried on to Akaroa. We will check the city out tomorrow or Saturday.

The road to Akaroa is another of the challenging drives New Zealand has to offer. The road winds its way up and down the hillsides, some of which are ancient volcanoes. Akaroa itself has a very French feel to it, which isn't too surprising since it was a French settlement. There are some really challenging hikes which leave from there, but you can also go on seal or dolphin cruises, snoop the craft shops or even do some para-gliding or swimming with the dolphins!

Click here

for larger picture of
the view from Okains Bay road.

Tom is still battling his stomach bug, but thinks he feels a bit better this evening. We both have our fingers crossed that the bug is just about gone, as we would like to try out a nice little hiking trail we read about. Nothing too strenuous...just a nice bit of fresh air. Kathryn is still managing to fend off the bug, just doesn't have much of an appetite at the moment. But, have no fear, we're determined to be 100% fit before we reach Kaikoura, as this is where we will be doing our whale watch cruise!

For the next couple of nights we are staying in Okains Bay at 'Kawatea' Farmstay, which is a restored Edwardian villa built in 1900. It is a gorgeous house, full of lovely stained glass windows and native timber work. Our room has a hardwood floor and high ceiling, so feels very open. We also have a door onto the deck, which leads to the gardens and a wonderful aviary full of wildly coloured parrots and parakeets. There are plenty of wild bird visitors in the garden, as well.

The house is located on a 540 hectare sheep and cattle farm, which is bounded by 5km of coastline. We'll try to check that out tomorrow, if we can. Guests can be involved in the activities on the farm, which may include moving stock, lambing, calving or shearing! I think the closest we'll get to that is possibly helping our hosts' son truck some water to the cattle tomorrow. Even that may not be necessary, since we are currently getting some rain.

This is the most 'off-the-beaten-track' we've stayed during our holiday and the peaceful surroundings will hopefully mean we both get plenty of rest so that we are in great form for the remainder of our holiday.

Again, this has been a rather quiet day, but there will be exciting tales to tell all of you yet!

Hangin' around Akaroa.

Firstly an apology to our regular readers for not communicating for the last few days. We did try in Timaru, but there was some kind of Internet problem and we couldn't connect. Hopefully we'll be able to talk our host's son, Adam, into letting us use their phone line after we've finished this report.

There was steady rain all through the night which made our hosts very happy this morning because the area has been suffering from the worst drought on record. The rain continued through the morning, but it did ease off from time to time. Tom is feeling better, although still a bit delicate - a description which was considered by our hosts to be very English! So we dug out the waterproofs and walked down the road to the village of Okains Bay which seems to consist of about half a dozen houses, a tiny shop and a Maori Museum.

It started raining heavily again so we ducked into the museum and looked around there for a while. After waiting for the rain to ease off, we walked back to the farm and had some more very close encounters with fantails and we hopefully have managed to get a couple of photos. We have learned that these birds are very inquisitive and they even come into the house and follow people from room to room.

Next we headed over to Akaroa which was an interesting drive because the top of the very dodgy road was in cloud. We made it safely and were pleased to find that Akaroa was mostly in sunshine and was looking very picturesque. We bought some sandwiches and fruit and ate it by the harbour, and just enjoyed watching life go by at a very sleepy pace.

One slight regret is that we know from the visitors book that the cooking at Kawatea is superb, but our hosts have gone out for the whole day so we will be cooking ourselves a light supper this evening. It's been a lazy day, but we always planned this stretch of the trip to be relaxing, so Tom's temporary ailment has not really affected our activities too much.

Tomorrow

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