I invited my mother to come to New Zealand for my last week here to do a mother/daughter trip and venture around the South Island together and go exploring! Lots of fun things already!
I called my Grandma from the airport while I was waiting for my mom. Grandma is doing great! She is 83 and doing wonderfully. After my Grandpa's passing this last year, she sounds in great spirits, loves her assisted living center, has friends, parties, walks alot and is now writing a story about a mouse named Courtney Longtail. :) She types it on her computer which she can enlarge a letters to see better, she is on chapter four and thoroughly enthralled in her book. I am so happy she is doing well and she says she has never been happier.
I picked up my mom at the Christchurch airport, she was so excited and didn't seem to have much jetlag. Went back to the hotel to freshen up, this hotel had a great view of Victoria Square in the middle of city centre in Christchurch. Victoria Square has lots of fountains and grass, very pretty. We just hung out in town and went to lunch, came home took a nap, had cheese, crackers and wine and went to bed.
Banks Peninsula--this is an area about 1 hr from Christchurch, Joseph Banks was the botanist on Captain Cook's boat for which the peninsula is named. Akaroa is the name of the town we visited w/ the great view of the water from above. This area is also where the French landed after the British and wanted to claim it as french land. The brits said they could sail back to France or live there under British rule. The French settled and there is a bit of french influence w/ architecture, food and such. But not as much French influence as we were told by the New Zealanders. Akaroa is slow this time of year, so it was a quiet afternoon.
We had a bowl of seafood chowder and beer right on the bay. I got to feed the sparrows and the sea gulls! The sea gulls swarmed me and the sparrows would grab their bread, hop around then come back w/ bread hanging out of their beak acting as if they didn't get any! Too cute. Also had three black cats cross our path and NO, it wasn't the same cat. So, I took it as a good luck sign since there were three.
My mom did bring the sun w/ her bc we have had sun almost every day since she arrived. THANK GOODNESS!
We tried to visit a winery which was the last one on the way to the West Coast, it said it was OPEN but we went in for tastings and no one was around. The wine country seems to be mostly in the middle of the country so we are heading out of that area as we travel south. Martinborough and Hawkes Bay on the North Island, Marlborough and Canterbury are the wine regions on the South Island. This would be a great thing to do during summer, but being a solo driver before my mom came and being sick and all the dead vines right now, wine tasting isn't that appealing. But we are buying bottles along the way from these local regions to have at night.
Catch Phrases--New Zealanders and Australians say things like: Bugga! No worries! Good on you mate! and Happy as Larry! This means being happy to the utmost extent, hmmmmmm....how ironic.
During our trip to Banks Peninsula, we were stopped by a herd of pregnant cows in the road. They were being herded along by a man on a motorcycle and a man in a Ute w/ two dogs....just not an everyday thing to witness. Very cool.
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