Above:  My new Toyota Crown Hybrid. I flew back to Auckland on the 0930 flight this morning.  Kim was meant to stay an extra two days but ended up coming back only a day after me. Picking him up from the airport, we called past a car dealer and settled on a Toyota Crown Hybrid […]

Roy’s Peak Jo left yesterday and were replaced by Brent and Moira as our guests at the apartment.  It was a big relaxing day in preparation for today. Today’s plan (for me) was to climb up to Roy’s Peak.  Brent  and Moira were keen to join us for part of the hike.  The hike starts […]

Yesterday, Kim had found a special offer for a cruise onboard TSS Earnslaw (an old steamship) to Walter Peak on the far side of Lake Wakatipu for afternoon tea and a farm tour.  The special price was NZD55 per person, which was about half the normal rate. We walked down to the steamship for the […]

We had a late start this morning and took a drive to Clyde to meet Jo’s friend Ash for brunch.  After that, it was a relaxing day of driving around to enjoy the colours of autumn.    

Today, we flew down to Queenstown for another minibreak.  We had standby flights for 1200 but managed to get on the 1115 instead.  Jo had commercial tickets and joined down there on the 1200 flight. With 45 mins between our respective flight arrival times, we made sure it was time well spent.  We collected the […]

Above:  My car, now sold. With daylight saving time still in our system, we woke early and Kim dropped me off at Christchurch airport about 0745.  Despite being on standby, the kiosk issued me a boarding pass for the 0900 flight straight away. Landing at 1025, I collected my car and took it through the […]

Daylight saving finished this morning while we were asleep, giving us an extra time in bed and a leisurely start. The drive to Christchurch is one we had done several times before.  This time, we broke the journey in Geraldine where we had lunch at the Barker’s shop and café.  When I told Kim about […]