Went to bed early last night and woke up just before 9:00. I usually eat breakfast in the Glasshouse, but because of the lockdown it's not open, so I ate in Medina instead. The lockdown causes meals to take longer as everything is served to you, even in the self-service restaurant. You are given a tray with plate, life, fork and napkin, then you are served with your food and don't forget to ask for sachets of salt and pepper. There are two boys serving wat...

Early arrival, but a late start! The plan was to do part of the Wellington Beer Trail. Phil and Yvonne had gone on ahead, so Rob, Linda, Barbara and I met at 10:00 in Raffles and took the shuttle bus into town. It was the first time we've had to pay for a shuttle. When we got into town Linda went off on her own and the rest of us set out on the trail. We walked past the New Zealand Parliament en route to our first pub. When we got there, it was closed and...

Arrived early. Sea Princess was moored ahead of us. This is a tender port and the journey is around 30 minutes. We managed to get on a tender around 10:00. Akaroa is a small place and many people were using it to go to Christchurch about 80km away. It's on a bay that is surrounded by steep hills. Yvonne and Phil were going swimming with dolphins in the wild, so the four of us just wandered around. There are really only a couple of streets and they were fu...

Cool start to the day at 12 degrees. Yvonne wanted to go jet boating and we managed to find a trip on the River Clutha near Lawrence. On the way we stopped at Lawrence for a coffee. When I tried to pay, I discovered that I'd put Euro's in my pocket and not dollars, sigh. The jet boat was fabulous. It was a small boat that held the driver and eight passengers, so the six of us had it to ourselves. We went about 10 kilometres up the river to a gold mining ...

Another sail-by. Well, sail-through really. The weather was damp and cool when I woke up and stayed that way all day. We arrived at Milford Sound about 9:00 and sailed from one end to the other. I remembered the two big waterfalls from my last visit with Angie. We travelled at a stately pace through the fjord, with the tall mountains on either side. It was too dull to see the glaciers high up in the mountains. People saw seals, but I didn't. There were lots o...