After our wonderful flight we set off further west to Tizel. Odd little town but we found a lovely restaurant for lunch and then returned for dinner!! Waking the next morning we had a frost covered car but it soon cleared.
Our drive to Hanmer Springs took longer than we planned but Ken spotted a Lodge sign offering lunch and it was a beautiful spot only marred by the owner/chef who talked too much!!On arrival in Hanmer Springs we found many of the Motels [usual accommodation] and Hotels had no vacancy signs up [first wekend of school holidays!] and it was getting a bit dark! So we drove into the first place we could and found a room. Nice but not exciting compared to Jones' usual standard!!! AND only a shower!!!!
Lovely walk round the town which is a thermal springs place and everything else you want to do! Early supper as it was cold. Enjoyed watching folks!!! Especially families!
Sunday and we had found a Church with a 10am service [others have been at odd times like 2pm] and went for a walk first. Found that my camera was making strange noises when I turned it on! Oh dear maybe my comments about Edecel yesterday........] Anyway it is not happy and not working now.
Church was gvood and after talking to the man who turned out vto be the visiting preacher we discover that he was English and had been brought up in the same Church that I used to attend when a student in London except he lefvt for NZ the year before I went!! Then we were introduced to a man who had been a missionary in PNG but another part. Very interesting.
After we started the drive north to Picton where will pick up the ferry tomorrow. This time we called the Motel to book!!! Again Ken found a lovely spot for lunch! Usuallly my job. Another couple arrived at the same time and they had twin girls of 8 months so we had to chat! It was so warm that people were sitting outside for lunch. So we have gone from minus 8 to 12 degrees in a matter of days!
Today with no camera to use we have seen three fields of deers right next to the road and two of Alpacas! Never mind the snow capped mountains, rivers so light blue with no fences in the way for photos, great road signs about driving carefully oh I could go on ...but couldn't record and won't be able to on the ship tomorrow! Oh well that's life.
Tonight Ken went for a walk and found a nice restaurant which did a deal if you ate early whcih is fine by us. The lady chef took our order and I was allowed different bits from different menus!! After dinner the chef came to chat and chat and chat! Actually it was very interesting! Her father in law is a Dublin senator and she is a Kiwi who stes up restaurants all over the place. Lots of name dropping that was lost on me!! Her 15 year old daughter was with her from school in Dublin and wants to be a singer so Mum made her sing inpropmtu for us!!! She was good! Then she was sent to do the ironing as part of her waitressing job to keep her feet on the ground!!! It was quite a different evening!! Now if only I knew Mum's name!!!!!!!
Back on the North Island tomorrow until Saturday.
Back soon.