On the road at last...!

Well, after doing a heap of food shopping in Christchurch, we set off out of the city, and through 1.8km of roughly circular tunnel through the rocky hills to the sea port that 'feeds' Christchurch's population. It's the same town we saw from the crater rim, high above, several days ago. Like a pint-sized Fremantle! Walked around and talked to Jodi, Bethany and Kevin (Liam, still sleeping at 930am is a bit lazy.....!).

Drove off to find Diamond Harbour on the other side of the harbour. The harbour is really big and it took us ages to drive around the edge, because the roadway was full of twists and high climbs to cope with the natural terrain. I spent most of the time in third gear with lengthy periods in second... The water is a delicious shade of aquamarine because of the amount of clay in the hills above the harbour -in some places the water looks quite milky.

After finding a road called "Kura Lane", we retraced our steps and headed off to Akaroa. Road got better as we got closer.

Coming over the hill after a long climb and being faced with Akaroa's estuary and myriad bays laid out before you like a postcard was gob-smacking. Is there nothing in NZ that isn't speccie?

We're late tonight and I will finish this note earlier than I wanted because we have to work out how to set up the bed in the van. I had a number of photos to post but the ftp client keeps getting timeouts over the GPRS link :-{