LEAF NZ Tour Diary --- Day 11 (Mt Potts to Kaikoura)
Rain, thunder and high winds early this morning, so Edoras has escaped our grasp - this time.
One of the bathroom doors (on the outside corner of a building) has been ripped almost completely off its hinges by the wind overnight. Hostess doesn’t seem too concerned - phew - it’s happened many times before!
Very excellent hearty breakfast provided.
Leave at 9.30am bound for Christchurch. Stop at Rakaia for petrol. We arrive in the Christchurch cinema carpark with one minute to spare before our appointed meeting with Eru.
We are lined up to buy our TTT Ex Ed tickets when he arrives.
Different, of course, to what I expect but I am pleasantly surprised. More reserved than he appears on LEAF but that may be the shock and surprise of seeing all of us. Glîr reckons he is quite taken aback! He definitely is anxious to get away after the movie. (Find out later he had to be somewhere in a hurry.) We have lunch at a café just across from the cinemas …and Eru has a Vanilla Coke! LOL!
We still have about 2.5 hours to travel to reach our accommodation in Kaikoura, so get on the road fairly quickly, soon after 5.00pm. We lose the other car in Christchurch town traffic, but they catch up fine.
Just after we pass Omihi (42km) a stone chips our windscreen (flew up from a truck as we passed going over a bridge). Bullet hole was very large and glass flew into the car on passenger side where Lilac was sitting. Emergency Budget number is no help - just goes through to AA after hours - so we have to continue to Kaikoura and ring Budget in the morning. Lilac sits in other car just in case the windscreen cracks even more, so my passenger seat is empty - kind of strange.
Arrive at accommodation at 7.45pm. Order in pizza (seafood chowder for me) and early night for all (I think/I hope!). Group decides to cut out Takaka Hill from itinerary due to car situation and locations not worth it.
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~~~ LEAF NZ Tour Diary Index ~~~
One of the bathroom doors (on the outside corner of a building) has been ripped almost completely off its hinges by the wind overnight. Hostess doesn’t seem too concerned - phew - it’s happened many times before!
Very excellent hearty breakfast provided.
Leave at 9.30am bound for Christchurch. Stop at Rakaia for petrol. We arrive in the Christchurch cinema carpark with one minute to spare before our appointed meeting with Eru.
We are lined up to buy our TTT Ex Ed tickets when he arrives.
Different, of course, to what I expect but I am pleasantly surprised. More reserved than he appears on LEAF but that may be the shock and surprise of seeing all of us. Glîr reckons he is quite taken aback! He definitely is anxious to get away after the movie. (Find out later he had to be somewhere in a hurry.) We have lunch at a café just across from the cinemas …and Eru has a Vanilla Coke! LOL!
We still have about 2.5 hours to travel to reach our accommodation in Kaikoura, so get on the road fairly quickly, soon after 5.00pm. We lose the other car in Christchurch town traffic, but they catch up fine.
Just after we pass Omihi (42km) a stone chips our windscreen (flew up from a truck as we passed going over a bridge). Bullet hole was very large and glass flew into the car on passenger side where Lilac was sitting. Emergency Budget number is no help - just goes through to AA after hours - so we have to continue to Kaikoura and ring Budget in the morning. Lilac sits in other car just in case the windscreen cracks even more, so my passenger seat is empty - kind of strange.
Arrive at accommodation at 7.45pm. Order in pizza (seafood chowder for me) and early night for all (I think/I hope!). Group decides to cut out Takaka Hill from itinerary due to car situation and locations not worth it.
~~~ Previous Day ~~~~~ Next Day ~~~
~~~ LEAF NZ Tour Diary Index ~~~