THURSDAY, LEAVING CHRISTCHURCH

 

It's an early start for us today.

Up at 6, and out of here by 6.30.

Stew is going to drop me and the bags off at the airport, before returning the rental car.  He will get the shuttle back to the airport.

Our flight, all going well, leaves shortly after 9, so we should land by around 10.15.

Then it will be HOME TIME... and while our trip away has been fun, it's also been tiring.

All I can think of right now is getting home and relaxing.

Unpacking will happen much later on today.

ABOVE: A couple of photos I missed putting up yesterday. Our dirty lunch dishes from PASTA PASTA.  I thought there were neat, having little messages on the bottom of them.   The restaurant owner was wearing a t-shirt with PASTA PASTA printed on it, and I asked him if they were selling them?

He said no, as they had only been open 3 months.  I told him we were coming back next year and I wanted one!  I wonder if he will get any printed off for sale?  😂

And that's enough waffling from me, I really need to get a move on, the plane waits for no one.

ONWARD...

ABOVE: Wet and dark, heading out to the airport.  I can now say with 100% accuracy... we did not see the sun at all while in the South Island! 

Here's hoping we get home to sunshine. 

Our flight doesn't leave for 2 hours yet, so we have time for a leisurely breakfast here in the terminal.

8.40 am and its nearly time to board our plane.

My carry on bag got flagged at security and we were pulled aside for questions. The security officer was looking VERY puzzled about the contents of my bag. Lol. I'll show you what caused the fuss once we are home.

9.34 am and just our luck. We are sitting on the plane and our departure is now delayed due to the baggage loading machine being broken. So we have to wait for another machine to arrive. Expected delay is around half an hour, on top of the 15 minute delay we have had already.  🫩  

We arrived back in Hamilton with no trouble or rough weather, which was expected.  So happy it didn't happen.

A few of the trip home photos:

ABOVE: Sitting on the tarmac, watching the sun try to peep through. It gave up.

ABOVE: Snow topped ranges west of Hanmer Springs.

ABOVE: The weather wasn't that conducive of taking photos... this one was of some snow capped ranges  near Nelson.

We really didn't seem much snow at all.

ABOVE: Kawhia Harbour, and our plane was descending into Hamilton by then.

The flight was smooth, we arrived about 1 and a half hours late at the end of the day.

We have already done most of the unpacking.  Stew is getting ready to head into an important meeting at work that he can't miss, then once he's home, I'll be taking him to the pub.

Not sure if I will go to the pub tonight, I'll see how I feel later.

ABOVE: THESE were what caused the fuss at security!  They couldn't make out what the hell they were, so I had to explain.  The security officer said she thought we had a actual OCTOPUS in my bag.  😂😅

We got both those in Akaroa... and we have ordered two more of the metal bees, they should arrive in a few days.

ABOVE: The larger rock was the one we got in Akaroa, which cost me my knees.  The smaller one is from the Christchurch Port Hills.

ABOVE: The fabric stash from three different shops.  Fabric weighs a lot, and with all that, and the few other things we bought (and rocks), our suitcases were almost at capacity weight.  We just squeaked in.

ABOVE: Another purchase from Akaroa, I have always wanted one of these vases.  It's so gorgeous!

We bought a few other things, but they are for gifts, so can't show them.

It is now 1.20 pm, and we have finished unpacking, and putting stuff away.  Time to relax.  Well, for me anyway.  As I said, Stew has a work meeting soon.

7.42 pm, and tonight is the first time Stew has walked to the pub, and will be walking home again!   This is what I wanted when we moved here, not having to take him up there and then picking him up again IF I didn't feel like it.

So, it's taken 14 months, but here we are.

I stayed home and did a few jobs, did a big Facebook update and just relaxed.

I'm hoping we both get a good night's sleep tonight, as last night was awful.  Worrying about sleeping in and missing the plane I presume.

Right, that's me for the day.  

Catch ya tomorrow.

WEDNESDAY IN CHRISTCHURCH... ASHBURTON BOUND

 

Good morning, another wet Canterbury day is ahead of us.

First up...

ABOVE:  My right knee is still a bit of a mess.  Hopefully it will stop oozing soon.  Stew's knee?  Is holding up really well to our ventures.  

ABOVE: These were the three pieces of fabric I got at the first fabric shop yesterday.  

ABOVE: And these were the fabrics I got at Sew & Co.  I was pretty happy with this lot.

Someone mentioned a fabric shop further south of Christchurch, in Ashburton.  As it's only an hour or so away, we are going down there this morning.

After that, we plan on coming back, jumping on the tram and doing the city circuit.

So, that should take up the majority of the day.

Catch ya later.

ONWARD...

10.54 am.

ASHBURTON... and we are just leaving the quilt shop. What a shop! It's a small cottage converted into a shop. When we arrived it was JAM PACKED with ladies, no room to move! They were from Lincoln, on a day trip to quilt shops. 

So we stood back until they left, then had a look around.

The rooms were so full of fabrics, notions, patterns etc, it was almost impossible to see everything.  PHOTOS LATER.

ABOVE: I managed to find a bit of fabric. The shop owners taste in fabric was not really my taste, so I was surprised I did find some to buy.

But not too much.

It is now 11 am and we are heading back to Christchurch for lunch, then tram tripping.

ABOVE:  I think this was us going over the Rakaia River.  The bridge was almost exactly the same as the bridge in Bulls (Manawatu), but way, way longer.

ABOVE:  Annies Country Quilt Shop in Ashburton, bursting at the seams with ladies!

ABOVE: A gorgeous wood burning heater in the shop.

ABOVE: There were 4-5 small rooms in the shop, and how you could find anything in there was beyond me!  Just so much crammed in there.

ABOVE: the owner of the shop collects ... egg beaters!  I've never seen a collection of those before.

ABOVE: We went to PASTA PASTA again for lunch today, because the food is soooo good.  Stew had to eat half my lunch. The owner recognised us... and my jacket.

My jacket gets SO MANY comments, both men and women ask me where I got it, say how lovely it is etc.

One man tried to swap it for fabric yesterday!!!

I think he was joking.  Not too sure.

His wife certainly wanted my jacket.

ABOVE: On the tram, which was packed!

ABOVE: We got off at Regent Street... walked up and down, then got back on the tram.  It was a very pretty street.

ABOVE: Got off again at the Bridge of Remembrance.

I wondered what the guys (Stew included), were looking at?

 

ABOVE: EELS.  Huge eels all along the river bank, looking for a free feed.

ABOVE X'S 3:  The Bridge Of Remembrance. 

ABOVE: Who said "Don't go to Ballantynes"?  We went.

We had a delightful afternoon tea there...

ABOVE:  I bought some 'farts'.

ABOVE: In the downstairs Tea Shop.  So pretty, and lovely service.  Not that pricey either.

ABOVE: And again, Stew had to eat half my food, this time it was a delicious Apple Crumble Cheesecake.  He had an Afghan biscuit as well.

ABOVE:  I bought these two gorgeous dishes in Ballantynes.

ABOVE: We talked with the storeman about how we'd been told Ballantynes was far to expensive to go into.  He said not EVERYTHING was very expensive, but YES, some stuff was.

ABOVE: In the menswear department, Stew spied this lovely blue winter jacket.

ABOVE: And then we saw the price.  Yep, it stayed in the shop!

After all that, we came back to the motel.  I'm exhausted.

Time to lie on the bed and relax.

In a couple of hours I will sort out our luggage, in readiness for our early start in the morning.

4.45 pm and I am signing off REALLY EARLY today, as I want to get our packing done, and not have to worry about anything else.

Catch you all tomorrow.

TUESDAY IN CHRISTCHURCH, FABRIC SHOPPING

 

Well, I had an average night's sleep.  The knees are not too bad this morning, I'm just feeling a bit stiff and sore.  I will take the dressings off later on today, and see where we are at.

Right, back to today.  We are going to visit two fabric shops, they are on opposite sides of the city.

We will pop into one in Hornby (Sewit.co), then go over to The Tannery in Woolston.  There we will visit Sew & Co, then wander around the other shops there.

After that, who knows?  No set plans, we really are 'winging it' with this trip now.

The weather has killed most of our 'outdoor' plans like going on the Gondola and visiting the Adventure Park.

ONWARD...

I took my knee dressings off this morning as they were coming off on their own.  My knees look great!  Left one is minor and not oozing, and the right on is a bit more ikky.  Some bruising as well (to be expected), and oozing, but on a whole I'm happy with them.  I think I'm a damn good healer.  I will keep a dressing on the right one for the day, so it doesn't stick to me leggings, then take it off when we get back to the Motel.  

I'm really looking forward to today's outing.  😂😅😊 FABRIC SHOPPING.

11.44 am. Our first fabric stop was disappointing, they didn't have much fabric. HOW RUDE.

So off we went to The Tannery and Sew & Co. They had lots of lovely fabric, and I did get some.

ABOVE: At the Tannery. Having lunch now.

ABOVE: We both had a burger and chips for lunch.  The burgers got a 5/10.  Very average.

Nice place at The Tannery though.

ABOVE: After lunch, we decided, as it wasn't raining, to chance our luck on the Gondola.  Port Hills straight ahead.

ABOVE: Going up, and a sheep acting like it was summers day!  Seriously, it was freezing.

ABOVE: Nearing the top, the climb got nearly vertical!  Lots of rock faces.  A bit daunting.

ABOVE: We knew there would not be a view at the top, but we didn't care.  It was still an experience.

ABOVE: At the top, where a nice man helped me out of the gondola.  He was lovely.

ABOVE: If we weren't up in the clouds, that would have been our view.

ABOVE: We had a walk around outside, looking for.... a rock!

Found one, just a small one.  I had to have a Port Hills rock!

ABOVE: The gift shop was very well priced, and we bought a few bits 'n' bobs there. The saleslady was a scream!  So very friendly.

 ABOVE:  My little Port Hills rock.  And now we are going down...

ABOVE: Once we were down, we drove through the Lyttleton tunnel...

ABOVE: The entrance to the tunnel, Christchurch side.

ABOVE:  Lyttleton harbour.  Very pretty.  Bloody freezing wind.

ABOVE:  I loved how the clouds seems to be creeping down the hills.

After driving around Lyttleton for a little while we came back to Christchurch.

Did a little fresh fruit shop at Pak 'n' Save, grabbed a LOTTO... and are now back at the motel.

Feet up, blankie on... relaxing.

7.41 pm, and we've had a nice, relaxing afternoon/evening.  Crackers, Cheese and cheesecake for dinner! lol

Signing off for the day now, catch ya tomorrow.