Have been away again. Here are some photos from the plane! Above are the snow-capped Kaikoura Ranges. Usually there is more snow than this but it is only early in the season. They are truly beautiful is full snow but also rather impressive here as they are, don't you think?
Further up the Coast, the landscape speads out looking like an unmade bed, hill and rivers valleys.
At the "almost tip" of the South Island are the salt farms near Blenheim. This area is well known for the Vineyards and for being one of the main places to visit when going to or from the Island by road and ferry across the Strait. I went to boarding school around this way and have fond memories of it to be honest!
Once at Wellington, and having had the meeting finish early - the joy of that! I love the shoe shopping that is available in Welly, then also found a bookshop with loads of Dr Who books and actvity books for the 10 year old, and then the best part of course meeting Pixie for coffee and plenty of catch up chat. We had coffee at Astoria, a cafe on Midland Park and very central to everything. This photo is of the coffee machine in their cafe. It is huge and would do some serious business!! The coffe was very nice, altho' I do prefer cinnamon on my cappucino but wasn't given the choice...liberally doused with chocolate it was still great. I think the company was the key! Thanks, Pixie.
Of course, we ended up at Leuven which appears to have become our local when I'm in town. We had the mussel, scallop and dill fritters - divine!Then it was home again, home again, jiggedy jig.
7 comments:
I know it's an annoying cliche but when I saw the mountains my first thought was of Gandalf. I need to face it: I'm a nerd.
Hi Steve, welcome back from your hols! If you look closely enough at the mountains you can probably find a hobbit....
Ah I can always come here and indulge my obsession with alcohol.
My voyages about are always plotted out by vineyards/pubs/bars/etc I want to visit with a few mountains,lakes etc thrown in along the way just to make me feel better.
When I come back and people ask me what I have done the first things that spring to mind are the meals I have eaten and the local drinks I have tried - but they usually want to hear about national parks and things!
Glad you are back!
RB - I am not sure how far you and I would get if we had to plan a trip! Probably as far as the corner pub....
Great piccies from the plane. I wish Brit planes would clean the windows more often!
You seem to have sneaked in some posts while I wasn't looking!
I love these pics. My mother was dead set against ever flying. Then she flew down to visit us in Christchurch, & was forever captivated by flying after she saw the beautiful snow capped Southern Alps!
Poet - yeah, it really is annoying trying to take photos and either the window is dirty or there is some hulk next to the window asleep!
Meggie - the mountains are lovely aren't they? By now they will have much more snow on them because it snowed at the weekend, 2 days after I took thses photos.
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