Back in Sydney with new visitors!!!

Back "home" in Sydney this week, we have new visitors from Oregon. Karen, Dan and Erin Blythe are here, Yay!!! So we have tried to do all of the major Sydney things. The first day (they arrived at the airport at 6:30 AM), we took off for the waterfront, toured the Opera House, shopped in The Rocks, and had dinner at 3 Monkeys. Wednesday we went out to Bondi Beach and then back to Paddy's Market (flea market). Dinner was at our apartment with the Blazer-Memphis game as our entertainment. Thursday was a harbour cruise followed by more shopping :)   Today (Friday) they are on the Blue Mountains tour, so I am here taking a rest! We will meet tonight for dinner in Darling Harbour. They have been so lucky with the weather this week. I think this has been the best stretch of weather since I have been here. It's been in the low 70's and sunny, a little breeze and just beautiful. Perfect!!!
We found a great spot for taking our "wear in the world" pictures with our Blazer gear on! GO BLAZERS!!!

Of course, we had to do the "THREE GOGGLES"

Hokitika to Christchurch, The Great Alpine Highway

On Monday, April 11, we had a chance to take our time before heading back to Christchurch. We took off at about 10AM and headed for the Great Alpine Highway. This road heads into the Southern Alps through Arthur's Pass and on into Christchurch. Gorgeous scenery!

Cute little place in Arthur's Pass

Who is that hot -looking guy?

We made it back to Christchurch and went straight to the airport to catch our flight back to Sydney. We drove 6 hours on Friday, 7 hours on Sunday and 3 1/2 hours on Monday! A lot of driving! A lot of it was on curvy roads, lots of going up and down hills. And, the South Island is not very heavily populated! There were so many bridges, like in the following picture, that were 1 lane only.

You have to be prepared to "give way"! The following pictures we took just to prove that we actually did drive a car with the steering wheel on the right side, and drove the car on the left side of the road!

We lived to tell the story of our trip to New Zealand's South Island!!!!

Queenstown to Hokitika, New Zealand

This was a very long day in the car! We decided to drive back to Christchurch via the west coast of New Zealand, just to see a bit more of the country. We were told that you had to have patience to complete this drive, and, boy, is that true. It was beautiful, especially between Queenstown and Makarora, with big lakes and beautiful scenery. But we started the day in Queenstown at a cool little church, quite a difference from the cathedral in Sydney!

Isn't that cute?

Lake Hawea

We made it to the Tasman Sea! Yay!!!

We spent the night in Hokitika right on the water. There were some interesting shops there...I'm just kicking myself that I didn't go back in the daylight and get a picture of The Possum Shop! Yep, I mean POSSUM!!!

There were actually clothes made from Possum fur (? is it called fur??) and there were stuffed possums in the windows as displays. Yikes!!! Actually, I did see some sweaters and blankets in the airport that were made from wool and possum. Maybe this is a possible new business in the US? We do have lots of possums...

Central Otaga Wineries-New Zealand

We visited four wineries on Saturday afternoon. The great thing about all of them was talking to the people there. The New Zealanders (Kiwis) all seem to be very outgoing and interested in everyone and everything. Every single one we met was so friendly. That was what made the wineries so much fun!

At the Gibbston Winery, we started out touring the vineyards and even tasted some of the grapes. Then off the the "wine cave" for tasings.

The second winery we visited was Peregrine. We didn't take any pictures there, but we did buy a great bottle of dry reisling.

Next on the list was Amisfield. This was a beautiful winery, the setting was great. We had lunch there and the food was the best we've had since leaving Oregon!

The final winery was called Chard Farm. It had a long, single lane road, with a huge cliff on one side of course! I was driving and I think Dave about had a heart attack a couple of times before we got there!

It was a beautiful day! Great wine, great food, great people and perfect weather!!!

Queenstown

When we woke up on Saturday morning and looked out our window, we could see immediately how beautiful Queenstown is! We walked through downtown, hit the Saturday Market, got some coffee, etc, etc.
Then we took off for the wineries!

The view from right in front of our hotel!!! The Remarkables (the mountains in the background) are cool.

Hang gliders from on top of the hill behind town.

On the waterfront

Downtown Queenstown was really cute. Lots of restaurants, shops, outdoor shops especially.

Saturday Market

Our hotel

Check out the next post for the winery photos!

WOW!! !The South Island of New Zealand!

We flew over to New Zealand on Thursday, April 7. We flew to Christchurch so that Dave could visit Eaton's facility there. We got there at about 1:00 AM, rented a car and made our way to our hotel in the dark. Not good for our first driving experience on the left side of the road! At least the roads were not crowded! We didn't look around too much in Christchurch, there really is quite a bit of damage from the earthquake in February. I've got 1 picture from close by our hotel, but I felt like it was just kinda wrong to  take a bunch of pictures of the destruction.

The buildings on either side looked like nothing had happened. Reminded me of tornado damage, one structure destroyed and the one next door is just fine.

So, we left Christchurch on Friday about 1PM and started our drive. The map shows the route we took over the 4 days we were in New Zealand.

It took about 6 hours to drive from Christchurch to Queenstown. The following pictures we took on the way there. The terrain started out looking like the Willamette Valley, with lots of green farmland. Then it became more like Eastern Oregon or Washington, big hills but brown, with not many of trees. Beautiful though.

Sheep!!!

By the time we got to Queenstown, it was dark. See the next post for beautiful Queenstown!