Christchurch, Saturday

Today is certainly a big travel day. Up at 4am after not much sleep. Boarded our coach at 4.45 for the ferry terminal where our ferry set off st 6.15am. It was a very smooth 3 hour ride so thankfully no seasickness at all. Once the sun came up it was a very picturesque voyage through the islands and Cook strait. Low cloud hung over Picton which made it very eerie as we sailed through.

We were back on our coach driving through amazing countryside that changed with every turn. We had the vineyards of the Marlborough region, sheer rock faces, tree plantations, farming and so much more.

Had a quick stop to see all the seals along the coastline. They are a bit hard to pick out in the photos but there were a lot of them. Certainly an unexpected sighting.

Stopped in a lovely little town for lunch where I had the best BLT ever! There was so much bacon that eating it was not a pretty sight but tasted superb!

Back on the road again as we continued to follow the coast line which was absolutely beautiful.

Arriving into Christchurch we had a drive around the city centre and were then dropped off at the Botanic Gardens for an hour. The gardens were gorgeous and even had the Avon river running along one side where people were kayaking or in a canal boat being punted along. The city appears to be recovering well from the earthquake of 10 years ago. Lots of new builds and still lots of reinforcement happening of older buildings.

Dinner tonight at the hotel, and I'm certainly hoping for an early night after such an early start. We have 8 new people joining our tour tonight so it will be interesting what happens tomorrow on the coach as 4 of us singles have had a spare seat next to each of us so far, but we will be a totally full coach tomorrow. It will all get sorted.