35 Days In...

Arrived in Christchurch and met by friend and her little boy.  Struck by the lack of traffic on the way to friend's house, though rather concerned by the rule allowing priority to drivers turning right - one to watch out for. 

Next day we wandered around the city centre.  It's quite an arty place with some lovely craft shops in the arts centre and a relaxed pace of life (sunnies and fleeces are de rigueur as the sun is hot but the wind is cold).   

 It's autumn and the leaves are falling (been a very good summer apparently, unlike Australia which had a poor summer).  New Zealand is familiar and yet strange at the same time, a parallel universe of neat schoolchildren and litter-free streets.  The Port Hills lie at the back of our friends' house.  We hire a car the next day and set off for the south and west, through the mountains.  It's not long before the landscape changes to barren rock and dried-up riverbed.  Or before the rain comes on in sheets as we arrive to admire the Pancake Rocks and blowholes of Punakaiki. 

Our next destination is the Franz Josef glacier further south which comes right down to temperate rainforest. 

Our motel room was subject to some intense bargaining as the manager accepted that he wasn't likely to rent many rooms in the later afternoon driving rain.  So we got it at a bargain of $100. 

Another huge meal tonight so the budget may be small but the waistlines are not.  Glow worms tonight on the way back to the motel.
Be seeing you.