Just South of Kiakoura we found a winery where we conducted some more research on the use of the local grapes. This produced some very interesting results, including the discovery of a Bailey’s Irish Cream type concoction made with the use of wine, very unique and very tasty.

Further south we stopped at another seaside village and spent some time on the beach looking for sea shells, unfortunately with less than stellar results. Just up the hill from the village was a rock formation called Cathedral Rocks, where quick photo frenzy set us up for our leg back to Christchurch.

Tonight is leftovers. We need to use up the food in the fridge because after tomorrow, Christmas day, we leave on our journey to the West side of the South island. We will be away from the house for eight days.

Even though it’s in the seventy’s and sunny we still get to bed with eager anticipation of Christmas morning.

The next stop was a downtown market held on the grounds of the original Canterbury College. Outside there were many of the same type venders as the first market, but inside the buildings were permanent higher end shops with many forms of artwork.

Just a few blocks from the market are the Christchurch Botanical Gardens, a large park area that sprawls throughout the downtown area. Christchurch is called the garden city and this is its anchor.

Back up the street a few blocks in downtown Christchurch is Cathedral Square. The cathedral was built in 1859 after Queen Victoria decreed that Christchurch to be a city. In the center of Cathedral Square stands the Millennium Chalice, a very unique metal sculpture.

The shopping had taken its toll on all of us so we returned to Dennis and Kerri’s for another great homemade dinner and some more rest and relaxation to prepare for more adventure.

Well, as usual, none of the things Susan and I do tend to go smoothly. After finding a good place to board Tess and Shadow, our canine kids, we decided to spay Shadow before the trip. We had snow on the ground when we brought her home and she loved to play in it. Of course this caused her stitches to become infected so we ended up having to leave Tess alone at the boarder and Shadow with the vet. Oh well.

So to begin the adventure we left the house on Thursday Dec. 20 at 9:00 a.m. with baggage and dogs and set out on the path to Dennis and Kerri and the land of the Kiwi. After driving about an hour to the dog boarder and dropping Tess there, we drove an hour the other direction to drop off Shadow. After that we met up with Tim Reeder (Thank You Tim!) around noon and he drove us the airport in Kansas City, which turned out to be the smoothest part of the trip.

After arriving at the airport we checked our baggage and went to the monitors to check the status of our flight. Delayed…go figure. Bad weather on the East coast had caused problems and after being scheduled to leave at 3:35p.m., we got off the ground at about 5:20p.m. Luckily we had a three hour layover in L.A. so we still had time. After some consternation about the status of luggage we got to our gate for the flight to Auckland.

Of course getting there in plenty of time meant that, yep, that flight was delayed also. So an hour or so later we left on the long leg of the trip.

I wouldn’t want to repeat this experience on a regular basis, but the flight actually was not as bad as I expected it to be. After watching a couple of movies and having dinner, we dosed off for a few hours. When the lights came on we blearily got ourselves prepared for breakfast, which was relatively tasty (or we were really hungry). We filled out our customs entry cards and we sat back and counted down the minutes to the end of our twelve and a half hour flight.

After arriving in Auckland and going through customs and retrieving our luggage we headed for the bio-restricted part of customs. We came though there minus one link of chorizo that we had hoped would be the center of a Mexican breakfast at Dennis and Kerri’s. What could be a problem now? Damage to one piece of luggage and Oh, yea, we were delayed in L.A. Yep, that’s the ticket! We missed our flight to Christchurch. However the people at the airport were most helpful, and about three hours later we left on the last leg of the trip.

We arrived in Christchurch a little after noon on the twenty-second of December, their time. Thirty-four hours after leaving home we were in New Zealand! Dennis and Kerri met us and what a wonderful sight. After some quick hugs and hellos we collected our baggage, filed a claim on the damaged piece of luggage, and escaped from the airport. Free at last! Free at last!

OK, yes it is a little odd riding down the left side of the road, but I think I can get used to it. We head to the house to unload and prepare for an afternoon of sightseeing. We set out with the first order of business to drop off the suitcase for repair. That worked out good because they could not fix it and we got it replaced on the spot, meaning we did not have to come back. The next bit of luck was just down the street we found the Harley Davidson dealer where we picked up our first Christmas presents (those of you reading this know who you are). Now, let the sightseeing begin.

Our first stop is the little seaport village of Lyttelton. Nice little town with art shops and restaurants. We had some fish and chips, tried some of the local barley malt beverages and enjoyed the view.

Next was Sumner, a coastal town with magnificent views, nice shopping area, and very interesting rock/cave formation. We took a tunnel through a hill from Lyttelton to get there and then took road through the Port Hills back into Christchurch. Wonderful scenery!

Since everyone was pretty tired we returned to the house where Dennis fed us a fish and mussel dinner, after which we all lasted not long. So ends the first day.