We packed mum off the airport this morning. Her flight to Sydney was delayed for a few hours. Hopefully she will have made her connection to Singapore. A long tiring day I'm sure. Despite the stormy weather this morning I felt like going for a run when I got back from dropping her off at the airport. The rest of the family were at church so that is just what I did- a very wet, windy, slow jog around part of the peninsula coastal walkway. Sometimes I love running in the rain and experiencing the rain close at hand.
So anyway, our holiday - loved Hanmer Springs. Great place to relax. Not a whole lot to do but we did the springs on two different days - one in brilliant sunshine, the other in snow and rain, followed by brilliant sunshine. Ian and I also went back for an evening soak to take in the stars. Very romantic. Mum of course met one of her former pupils. The chef at the restaurant at the springs was a few years below me at Regent. We had a good chat with him. The other attraction for the kids at Hanmer is a little Nature Park which also boasted a great cafe. Ethan loved the animals and was fascinated and terrified in equal measure by the friendly and very exuberant pig called Doris. She followed us around before taking off on an occasional sprint around the park. In the end the keepers put her in her cage as Ethan refused to walk when she was around. The park also had a Yak, deer, horses, goats, sheep, alpacas, spitting llamas, a donkey and lots of ducks and geese. We had to go back on our last day at Ethan's insistence to say goodbye to Doris.
On Tuesday we drove to Kaikoura for the day. Beautiful scenery on the way and another glorious sunny day. We got a motel room with a balcony overlooking the sea and the mountains. The mountain range at Kaikoura runs right up to the water's edge. It really is spectacular. The town is now built around the tourism industry. They do lots of whale watching and dolphin swimming tours. Quite a few of them were cancelled when we were there as the sea was very rough. We did manage a walk out to the seals and a bit of a way round the peninsula. In the evening Ian and I went out for a drink at the local pub. We were the only people there from about 8.30. We had a good chat with Al the barman who had just got back from a few years in Truro. His cornish girlfriend is due to join him soon. He was designing a cocktail menu for the bar and used us as testers. Yummy! When we eventually left he closed up as no-one else seemed to be out.
Other than that, we had lots of lazy evenings in front of the fire at Hanmer. Watching TV is a novelty for us as we don't have one at home so i enjoyed doing that. Mum finished knitting me a lovely jumper. I'll blog a photo of that and some other holiday snaps soon.
Now back to reality - playgroups are back on. Ian is looking for a new job as he finished with IBM last week.
1 comment:
Thanks for the news of south island it sounds great. Saying bye to mum must be tough.Hope she caught her connection . We are having a heat wave. getting me ready for Minneapolis in 2 weeks time, but thunder clouds are gathering now !We have enjoyed seating in the garden this week which is what it is for of course.While I am away Eddie will get the big old lilac trees down to expose the fence at the bottom and some lovely shrubs which we never see. Ian, we are praying that the right job will come along soon even if it is in Thailand !
Bye for now
Mum & Eddiexxxx
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