Te Anau and the drive to Milford

January 2011

We started the long drive to Te Anau from Christchurch very early on New Years Day, it was a great time to be on the road.

We stopped at The Church of Good Shepard at Lake Tekepo, one of my favourite places to stop, about 2.5 hours out of Christchurch.

We drove along a bit further and were greatly surprised to see Mount Cook in clear view! (I would find out on our drive back that this was in fact not a common site).

We continued our drive through Omarama, Cormwell and Kingston, stopping at Garston for a late lunch (which was a great find, with yummy burgers and pies).

We arrived tin Te Anau, the gateway to the Fiorlands about 9 hours after leaving Christchurch, not bad considering.

So what's there to do, eat and see in Te Anau?

We'll most people use it as a base to do some amazing walks and see the beautiful sounds in the area, but in summary of what we did, ate and saw.

Stay: The Te Anau YHA, in a double room with en suite. Nothing to write home about, but cheep, clean and had a great kitchen.

Eat:
Fat Duck - great good hear, we had the duck special and the fish of the day (monkfish) and thought it was a great meal

Naturally Fiorlands Pizza - give this place a miss. The food is average, the service poor and it took a long time to get our food.
Miles Better Pies - great coffee and pies. We had a breakfast and a lunch here. At lunch the line was long but it was quick and efficient. make sure you try the venison pie.
Moose Bar and Restaurant - we didn't eat here, but it was a good place to get a drink overlooking the lake.

See:
Like I've said Te Anau is a common base for the many walks in the area, including the famous Milford track. It also acted as a base for us for Milford and Doubtful sounds. But we also had opportunity to check out the Te Anau Wildlife Centre, where they rehabilitate the many native New Zealand birds. It was great to see the wood pigeon, cheeky kea and the rare Takahe (which was feeding at the time).

Hanmer Springs New Zealand

December 2010

The drive from Kaikoura was scenic, and we arrived in a busy Hanmer Springs. We spent about an hour enjoying the thermal pools, which as busy as it seemed getting in wasn't overly packed inside much to our relief.

We then had a nice lunch at the Springs Deli Cafe before heading back to Christchurch.

Kaikoura New Zealand

December 2010

It's a nice 2.5 hour drive from Christchurch to Kaikoura, even in the rain. It's a pretty coastal drive for the last part, reminding me of parts of Hwy 1 on the coast of California.

I'm usually a very organised traveller, but we hadn't booked a boat cruise for the time we were meant to be in Kaikoura and when we arrived they were booked out, so take the tip and book in advance if it's something you really want to do. If you miss out like we did, there is plenty to keep you busy.

We drove out to the seal colony, while the tide was in and were surprised how close some of the seals wanted to get!

We then enjoyed a nice lunch at the Kaikoura Seafood BBQ hut on the side of the road - crayfish, paua fritters, whitebait fritters and chowder - yum!

We drove back into town to check out the Kaikoura Historical Society Museum, small, but worth the visit if you have an hour to spare.

We then drove back to the seal colony to take the walk to the lookout (5 min up hill), we were planning on doing the full hour or so walk but the wind was extremely strong so we decided to give it a miss, the views from the lookout were definitely worth briefly braving the weather though!

We checked into our accommodation at The Fairways, which is just out of town but the golf course. We chose here based on Tripadvisor reviews and were not disappointed.

We then decided to have a drink and then a meal at The Pier. What did we have? If you guessed crayfish you'd be right! The view is stunning and the service was great.

In the morning we enjoyed breakfast at the Kaikoura Food Company before heading off to Hanmer Springs.

Christchurch New Zealand

December 2010 and January 2011

Ok, it was a little shaky in the beautiful town of Christchurch this Christmas, but don't let that deter you! It's a beautiful city that's just waiting for the next tourist.

Some of the highlights from this trip:

Christmas

It was my first ever Christmas with DHs family, and boy was I impressed! I know know his kitchen skills are hereditary...

Food

Twisted Hop for a drink

The Coffee House opposite the art gallery, nice little courtyard

Salt on the Pier at New Brighton

Sightseeing
We've been to Christchurch a number of times, so this is only what we did this trip, this is by no means an exclusive list.

Cathedral Square

Art Gallery for Ron Mueck exhibit

Governors Bay Hotel

Driver to Sumner

New Brighton Pier

Jogs
A new trend you might be seeing on my travel posts, DH and I have recently taken up jogging (not yet at the stage where you can call it running!). We went out three times this trip:
1. Chestnut Park
2. Bradford Park
3. Sydenham Park

Places I have been

So Australian's generally have a reputation for being travellers and therefore well travelled, and going through the list of countries I have visited (not counting transiting countries, that's just cheating), I'm not too sure that I belong in the same group. Never less, here is the list of countries that I have visited in my 30 odd years of existence:

1. Australia
2. Bosnia Herzegovina
3. Cambodia
4. Canada
5. (Mainland) China
6. Cook Islands
7. Croatia
8. England
9. Hong Kong
10. Hungary
11. Macau
12. Montenegro
13. New Zealand
14. Serbia
15. Singapore
16. Tahiti
17. Thailand
18. United States
19. Vietnam

With plans this year to visit between 4-5 new countries, I can safely say that I'm at least on my way to be world traveller. How many countries have you visited?

Mr and Mrs Smith Boutique Hotel website

The Mr & Mrs Smith site is full of Boutique hotels and holidays around the world. You can spend hours browsing the site and end up with a endless list of holiday opportunities.

The nice touch is that there are often reviews, making it much more blog like than just another hotel finder (although they also have a blog section).

And with images like these, makes for good browsing....

Ah, at least it's good to have dreams.....

Wish List: Lord Howe Island

We've been spending a bit of time thinking about where we could spend our next long weekend and Lord Howe has been brought up and subsequently googled after each conversation.

I'm nearly sold based on the images, in particular of Capella Lodge (above), but the flights are $$$ from Sydney, making it more like a wish location than a on the horizon possibility.

A girl can only dream....