Weather - Fine, warm approx 21C
We had another wander around the container shops, had a coffee and used the free Internet to check emails & upload my last 2 blog entries. We then walked back to our hotel, grabbed our carry on bags & boarded the coach. Departing the hotel about 10am, we took a short drive to the Christchurch Museum & Botanical Gardens. Both were virtually untouched by the earthquakes and well worth a visit. We spent most of our time in the gardens as it was such a beautiful morning. The trees & flowers were amazing, as my photos will show. We then made a brief visit to the museum which was very well set out & informative, until it was time to depart beautiful Christchurch.
After about 2 hours travel we stopped in Geraldine, a little coastal town, for lunch. Next we headed towards Omarama, stopping at Lake Taupo with the Church of the Good Shepherd & another lake (forgot the name) for a photo shoot along the way. The water colour in these lakes is an amazing pale turquoise, this combined with the green of the foliage, blue sky & snow capped mountains in the background makes for picture postcard views. I must have taken 200 photos today so you will see a small sample below. We have been so lucky with the weather this trip as today it was fine in Christchurch, then it became overcast with some rain as we were driving. Once we neared Lake Taupo the sky cleared and the sun came out, a perfect backdrop for our photos.
We arrived in Omarama around 6pm and were taken to our hotel, the same one i stayed in last time I was here. As soon as we arrived the memories of the guest laundry, the bar, restaurant & tables outside on the lawn came flooding back. Especially sitting outside in the late afternoon sun drinking wine with fellow travel companions. I wonder if anyone else can remember?
Our dinner tonight was a buffet at 7pm, so we quickly unpacked the basic necessities & walked over to the bar/restaurant for a drink before dinner. The meal was great, as far as buffets go, nice veggies, salads, fish & meat. We sat with 2 nice Irish gentlemen who are travelling together (one is a university lecturer & the other a Catholic Priest).They are both very nice and we had an interesting conversation.
Unfortunately it is just a little too cool to sit outside tonight so we had to have our wine indoors. It is a beautiful clear night, however the wind is quite cool. We have managed to do our laundry as well .... So clean clothes for the next few days!
I think we will have an early night tonight as the coach leaves here at 8am for beautiful Dunedin.
Here are a selection of photos from today.
More tomorrow.
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