Pat and Don's Big Adventure

Well my friends, Sadly our time in NewZealand has come to an end. It has just flown by or should I say we have flown through this beautiful country by car!! Last time we wrote we were in Queenstown. Now that's a lively city, they actually keep things open past 10p.m. We had a wonderful visit with my brother Tom & his wife Angela. great day had by all. Then we travelled to a VERY remote place called Haast on the west coast(no one really needs to go there as there is only 1 hotel with the only 2 restaurants and 1 gas station)but we both were tired and needed a place to stay so that was it. We drove along the coast the next day up to the glaciers-Fox glacier & Franz Joseph glacier-what a site. We were able to hike into both and each of them was spectacular!! Of course I needed a big glass of wine for pain relief. We settled in for the night at Franz Joseph in a lovely little place. The temperatures were a little cooler than we were used to but warmed up with food and drink. Next day we headed further north(still on the west coast) to Greymouth. They have the most interesting rock formations we've ever seen. They look like stacks of pancakes with blow holes spewing every few minutes!Next day we drove from the wesy coast all the way to the east coast (about 3 hours). Nothing like driving in Canada except the driving part through the mountains-just a bit of the white knuckling, thank goodness the drive was short!! Arrived in Christchurch to a beautiful day of sun & heat.Experienced a winderful exhibit called the Anarctic Exhibit where we got up close & personal with the penguins, then had to put on heavy parkas to experience and Antarctic blizzard-we'd do it again but this time we wouldn't wear shorts-just a tad chilly at -18 degrees but then there was the windchill factor brrrrr....Headed out to beach after all that hoping to warm up and found a lovely one called Brighton Beach where there was a fabulous kite festival on but as much as the winds kept the kites up it chilled us to the bone. Back to warm up with a lovely glass of wine and appies. Yesterday was our last full day here in NZ so we decided tohead out to Akaroa a volcanic penninsula. The maps don't tell you about the drive there and as you can guess it was another Sheryl Crowe"winding road" only this one was very very steep!! Finally reached the beach there and decided to do some jet boating again-we're quite liking that activity. This one took us out to the bird sanctuary as well as where the penguins gather (you have to be quieter there-no 360 spins). We ended our day with a nice lunch in the harbour-no wine for us as the drive was going to be challenge going back. Had nice dinner out near Cathedral Square where we walked our dinner off later. It's such a busy city but very well looked after and has everything that a tourist would need. Vancouver/Richmond could sure learn a few things from these kiwis.This is such a beautiful country that we would certainly come back,just not travel as much! Well we are off to the airport to head to Australia-2nd part of our great adventure. We hear the weather has been hot so we will take a few days to aclimatize ourselves. Hope all is well with everyone back home..love & hugs to all...Pat & Don