Mini-holiday, part 2

Part two of the mini-holiday post.

After ice-climbing we had good pizza and indifferent wine in a Franz Josef bar, and then went back to the place we ate the first night for much better wine. We both slept like logs until the morning, and woke ready for our long drive across to Christchurch (about 5 1/2 hours).

It rained a bit, as it's wont to do on the West Coast, but by the time we were into the mountains it had stopped and was clearing up, and the views were beginning to be spectacular - vast snowy mountains on either side of the road. By Arthur's Pass village (the highest settlement in NZ at about 1000m) it was bright and sunny and gorgeous.



We went for a short walk after lunch to some waterfalls. I'm a sucker for a good waterfall and this was an excellent one, pouring down hundreds of feet. The light was tricky though, so my picture's not great. On the way back, views over to the mountains.





Back in the car, and on down towards the Canterbury plains through the mountains. I felt a bit like I was in Rohan - Mount Sunday/Edoras is further south, but it was the same sort of thing, with rings of mountains around flatter land. It was just amazing. I think it would be even better going the other way actually, but we weren't complaining.



Perhaps because of the views the distance passed quickly, and we got to Christchurch and another nice little backpackers. Gave up trying to decide what to do the next day and decamped to a restaurant, where we sat outside under heaters. I had mussels and Helen had lamb - very Kiwi! After that there was rather a lot of drinking, first in the restaurant and then in the nearby Irish pub.

In the morning we felt like fresh air (!) and exercise, and managed to hire bikes - the place we originally planned to get them from was closed, but judicious use of a phonebook meant we found a guy who drives around Chch with a trailer and delivers bikes to where they're wanted. He sketched out a route for us that would take us to the seaside, and we cycled along the idyllic river Avon (very pretty) to New Brighton. There we watched the surfers for a bit and admired patterns in the sand.



After that, back on the bikes to Sumner, where we ate fish and chips - unfortunately not the greatest, but all right - and sunbathed because it was such a glorious day. The sun was warm, but because it is still winter the sand was cool, an odd feeling.

We had time when we got back to Chch for a quick wander around the botanic garden:



We whiled away the evening in a nice pub before driving to the airport, because I had to come home. I was utterly exhausted, but it really was a great weekend.