I had imagined The last day of our tour would be a boring drive across the flats to Christchurch.
Instead I found the place I want to build my million dollar house one day.
This is about 3 minutes walk from our lodge.
Then the clouds rolled in again but that made for a better sunrise.
There were several stops along the way including an area of interest for cave explorers.
Back onto the road to Castle Hill
There isn't a castle there but maybe they anticipated the house I will build there one day?
Those people coming up the driveway may as well enjoy the scenery before I build here.
My wife snapped a few photos out of the car window while driving through Christchurch to the airport. I have no interest in busy places full of people. Christchurch is still being rebuilt after the 2011 earthquake.
A 1 1/4 hour flight back to Auckland brought us back to reality and the stench of cigarette smoke as several people couldn't wait to get to the smoking areas to suck their anxiety out of a cigarette and resorted to ducking around the corner on the way there, while the wardens wandered over to tell them to put their cigarettes out. All I thought of when I saw the drifting smoke was the sunrise that morning from the motel at Arthur's pass.
Since my visit 10 years ago things have changed. Such as more competition in flights to the South Island, meaning that it now costs 1/4 what it did 10 years ago to visit, and when you take inflation into account is is more like 1/6th what it used to cost. Taking into account the fact that my wife was already planning our next trip after the first day in Queenstown the chances are we will be exploring the area a bit more in future :)
Instead I found the place I want to build my million dollar house one day.
First of all I woke up early to see that the morning was clear so I donned all my cold weather gear and went for a walk in the valley with the 12-24mm lens for a change. I would like to know what numbskull decided to put huge powerlines through such nice scenery???
This is about 3 minutes walk from our lodge.
Then the clouds rolled in again but that made for a better sunrise.
There were several stops along the way including an area of interest for cave explorers.
Back onto the road to Castle Hill
There isn't a castle there but maybe they anticipated the house I will build there one day?
This will be the view out of the lounge window.
Perhaps the barbeque between those rocks>
My wife snapped a few photos out of the car window while driving through Christchurch to the airport. I have no interest in busy places full of people. Christchurch is still being rebuilt after the 2011 earthquake.
A 1 1/4 hour flight back to Auckland brought us back to reality and the stench of cigarette smoke as several people couldn't wait to get to the smoking areas to suck their anxiety out of a cigarette and resorted to ducking around the corner on the way there, while the wardens wandered over to tell them to put their cigarettes out. All I thought of when I saw the drifting smoke was the sunrise that morning from the motel at Arthur's pass.
Since my visit 10 years ago things have changed. Such as more competition in flights to the South Island, meaning that it now costs 1/4 what it did 10 years ago to visit, and when you take inflation into account is is more like 1/6th what it used to cost. Taking into account the fact that my wife was already planning our next trip after the first day in Queenstown the chances are we will be exploring the area a bit more in future :)