Farewell North, Hello South

It was with a heavy heart that we said farewell to the North Island with its stunning scenery and friends and family that we have had some really lovely times with. We sailed from Wellington to Picton – along with some sheep naturally – and our crossing was considerably calm. These straits – the Cook Straits – are notoriously rough and fickle, causing more than one or two mishaps with these huge ferries. We camp for the evening just down the road from the town of Picton and enjoy a game of scrabble and a well earned beer!

Kaikoura Our van is due for a check up in Christchurch on Tuesday and we break up our journey with an overnight stay in Kaikoura. We came here in 2014 and I fell in love with the place. Don used to pass through here often many years ago and so we both have memories here. On November 14 2016 a 7.8 magnitude earthquake tore through fault lines, demolishing houses, causing huge landslides and ripping up roads. Kaikoura was shut off from rescuers and the community pulled together to start the clean-up. Due to the strength of the quake, there was uplift by as much as 8m in some areas. Please click the link to read more about this event and it’s aftermath…https://www.kaikoura.co.nz/stories/kaikoura-earthquake-story/ It was important for us to revisit a place we both love. There are some places where the impact of the quake are super visible – roads and missing buildings – but the town has bounced back and is thriving. So great to see. We even managed to see a huge number of seals, had a visit to the Kaikoura Seafood BBQ Shack and returned to Strawberry Tree to have a pint of Sheepshagger – yes, only Kiwis would take the rise out of themselves like this! We had a fantastic breakfast at Dune – Dune Bene for Don and Poached Eggs on Toast for me. Delicious! And as for the flat whites…OMG glorious!

Christchurch Bit of history first – a series of tremors occurred within and near the city of Christchurch and the surrounding region from early September 2010 to late December 2011. The severest of those events was a magnitude 7.0 that struck on September 4, 2010, and the large, destructive magnitude 6.3 aftershock that occurred on February 22, 2011. 185 people were killed. Many were made homeless. When we first came to NZ in 2014, we flew into Christchurch to pick up our campervan. As we drove around the city, there was still so much destruction everywhere. It was so sad. Christchurch Cathedral was severely damaged and still to this day is shrouded in scaffolding and sheeting. It is a city of two halves – one beginning to thrive after rebuilding and the other still struggling to move on. In a market near where the Re:Start Container Mall was, we have great flat whites at Espresso Studio by Fushoken https://www.facebook.com/espressostudiobyfushoken/ and we experience an award winning Steak & Gravy Pie from The Butcher’s Pie Shop https://thebutcherspie.co.nz/