Tuesday 1st March

We said our farewells to Timaru after a reasonable breakfast in our Lodge.

We drove North on a very busy SH1.  Apparently SH1 is not normally so busy but a lot of the trucks are having to come to the port in Timaru as the container ships are being diverted away from Christchurch.

We waved our goodbyes to The Pacific Ocean and at Winchester we turned off SH1 onto SH72 to follow the inland scenic route to Christchurch.

We made a brief stop in Geraldine to visit the Library to check on our flights but the library service was run from Christchurch and they were experiencing difficulties with the internet.

Just North of Mayfield we stopped for a photo opportunity of the Southern Alps from the Canterbury Plain. 

 

We noticed that a lot of the streams were running very full and wondered if the water was being diverted away from Christchurch.

We stopped in the little community of Staveley for our morning coffee.  (Well as the saying goes, it would be rude not to!).  They also had hokey-pokey and liquorice ice-cream and it was a toss up which we had.  The coffee won!  The toilets weren’t in the café but in the community hall which was across the green.  Staveley was very different from the Staveley that Linda grew up in.

 

North of Staveley we made a detour into Methven to try to find the library.  Unfortunately, it was very closed when we arrived with a tape across the front of it.

We drove back on SH 77 and encountered a large herd of bullocks being moved.  The farmer was in a pick up truck and he had thee dogs with him that were keeping the cattle moving.  No notice to warn us that we were approaching the cattle and no -one working with the farmer.  As the SH 77 joined SH72 there was a large flock of sheep blocking the road.  Obviously we are in a very rural area!!

We stopped to take photos of the Rakaia Gorge where the water was a brilliant green/blue colour. 

 

Nine Morgans, participating in the Morgan Grand Tour of NZ, 2011 passed us at the look out point which allowed for another photo opportunity.  There were three cars from the UK and one from the USA!  Examples of the New Zealand car registration were MOG 8, M0G8, MOG 80, MOGMAN!  The UK registrations included TS58 MOG, PH59 MOG.  As the day progressed, we saw several more Morgans.

 

We stopped at 12.51pm on the edge of the gorge to observe the two minute silence called to remember the people killed in the earthquake.  Exactly a week since the earthquake and we would have been there at this time this week.  That was a very frightening thought.

Following SH 72 we stopped in Oxford (yes we know that we are supposed to be in New Zealand) for our final hokey-pokey ice cream in New Zealand.  We took a couple of photos, including one of Ian in the Oxford pillory outside the old wooden gaol.

 

We filled the car up with petrol in Rangioura as it was a decent price and we were not too far from Christchurch. At this point we had not seen a sign post for the airport and only had a sketchy idea of its whereabouts.  8 km from the airport we found the first sign post.

Christchurch airport is undergoing major redevelopment and it was difficult to see where we had to hand the car in.  We had seen a Budget depot on the way in so went back there to ask.  They directed us to a car park near to Departures.  When we parked up a gentleman, in uniform, came straight to us and when we said that we needed a trolley he found one straight away.  He had a look around the car and approved of the state that it was in (coated in dust from the unmetalled roads and even though there was a chip in the windscreen that had been there since day 1), so we handed over the keys.  No drama about extra payment so happy about that.

We thought that we had to check in at Domestic Departures but we were re directed to International Departures.  Our cases were checked in and they SHOULD be put onto the flight out of Auckland!

Waiting in the airport is sooooo tedious.