Left Waimate at 9.15am to head back up the main highway 1 back to Christchurch, the road we came down after landing in 26th February. We couldn't get over the views looking over the mountains inland as we missed all that on the way down because of the thick cloud and sea fog that was coming in. The weather certainly makes a difference, another cloudless day again. Made us think back to the Catlins area were we had cold, windy weather just never seems to be the same. Although we didn't get the rain down there except for a few spits now and again.
On our way up today we went into the town of Temuka ( the home of Temuka pottery) as we by-passed it on the way down. Its amazing how big these little towns are in behind the commercial centres.
Driving around Temuka we saw the old court house (1904) which is now a museum, nice old building
Around the back streets we saw Hope Cottage (1886), one of the real old cottages. We notice it is on the market. I wonder how much it would be worth.
I remember when we were first married, that the Temuka pottery was very popular and I had many pieces of it during the 70's and 80's.
Now passing through Rakaia where we stopped for fuel where I spotted this quaint little cottage which today is Abbies Country Quilt Store.
Just past Rakaia stopped at Salmon World where we had a nice salmon platter between us.
Salmon and Trout in the big tanks.
When we had ordered our lunch were given our table number but they had run out of the holder things you slip them in and place them on your table, so PT stuck it in my glasses so it could be easily seen by the waiter. They were very busy, lots of people.
Our Motel in Christchurch called 315 motel very nice was only built last year and opened in June.
Although the rooms are very nice rather small after all the other motels we have stayed in.
The weather has been great today hot but just looking outside now (8.00pm) it has all clouded over. We didn't realise but we have clashed with the Garden Show down here so luckily we booked a couple of months ago as everything is booked out. Unfortunately it will make the town very busy over the weekend.
On the way round our trip we notice how lucky the farmers are in the south with all this dry weather having the access of water from the rivers for their irrigation systems. Not that there is much water flowing down them. There are sprinkler systems all through their paddocks including these very long mobil irrigation systems on wheels that move slowly around spraying water out at great volums. Some looked about 300 m long. Poor North Island farmers don't have this great facility.
Off to look round ChCh tomorrow to see the earthquake damage. We have spoken to people from ChCh on our travels and they all want to talk about the problems down here. In the unit two a long from us there is a couple living there for six weeks who had to get out of their house for repairs. We were all sitting out in the sun on our balconies which are joined up as one, talking about it all. Its very interesting listening to them.
Large balcony outside our rooms. The far end is the one where the locals are staying for six weeks. Just after this photo was taken there were six of us out there chatting. Note PT'S fingers trying to be like the Asians how they pose for all their photos.On the boat at Milford Sound some Koreans took a photo of Pete and he held his fingure up like this as they do and they all cracked up laughing.
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