Monday March 27, 2023 - Kaikoura to Christchurch

Who are these people?? Sorry, Iowa, but these people are downright pleasant. Stop for gas and you have the most pleasant conversation and well wishes. Check in at the motel tonight and they offer to pick us up or drop us off wherever we need. Return the rental car and, no problem, we will run you right over to the motel instead of the airport. Who would not want to be surrounded by these people?? So cut it out you grumpy ass people back in America. Lighten up and be kind! OK, I'm done...

We packed up from Fiona's place this morning and made one last drive down to the seal colony where there were three seals. One was new and the other two were in the same places as they were yesterday.

One moved so I knew it was alive and Deb refused to go poke the other two.

One last drive through downtown Kaikoura then onto RT 1 and south. Again this road, like pretty much all the roads, is twisty. RT 1 is a bit wider but we did see a few one way bridges. And more trucks (double trailers are pretty normal here) I assume delivering crisps and hand pies up and down the eastern side of the South Island. We made a few stops on the first part due to the nice ocean views and lots of pull offs. A few stops to let people go by since we were in no hurry to get to Christchurch. And it was a blue sky day so nice and sunny. 

We did a detour to Gore Bay which is a tiny but paved road, somewhat two lanes, and walked the beach and found lots of smooth rock that were full of holes. Every beach has something different going on. No trash on this beach (same with all the beaches here).

Next stop was for gas because we were cutting it close to get back to the car rental place. I pumped $20 NZD worth to get us to cheaper gas in the big city. Then we stopped at an I-Site info center so Deb could pick up some NZ gifts, but they only had pamphlets. 

We reached the hotel before check in but they said the room was ready, so we emptied the car of a month's worth of all kinds of stuff. The people here are amazingly nice and we had a great chat with most of the staff. And we were able to give away the chilly-bin. Then to the car rental place where we had to confess our sins about the missing hub cap we lost in Greymouth 3 weeks ago. They would charge us for 1 Toyota hub cap so stay tuned on how much that will be ($60 NZD was the estimate). The young guy behind the counter organized our paperwork and he offered to give us a ride to the motel. The motel clerk set up a taxi for us at 3:45 in the morning so we could get there early enough for our 6 am flight to Sydney.

Then we walked around the block to get our last chai latte and flat white (boo hoo). They may actually make them in Sydney, stay tuned.

So there is a place down the street recommended by the nice hotel clerk called Merrin Street Brewery Bar. Its a 20 minute walk through a nice park. A little busy with rush hour (5:30) but it turned out to be great. We got a pint and glass of wine and a couple big salads. And then a nice walk back as the sun dropped and people were walking dogs and jogging around the park.

So tonight we need to sort out what is going in what bag, identify what we can check (peanut butter?) and what we need to leave here hoping someone can take it home and feed it to their kids.

We will set the alarm for 3:15 so we are ready for the cab at 3:45 so we can get to the airport by 4am so we can catch the flight at 6am. The funny thing is we will fly out at 6am on Tuesday and arrive at 11:15am on Tuesday. Makes my head hurt...