Last day in New Zealand

Editor's Note: With this post we conclude our New Zealand trip coverage. Hopefully you all enjoyed watching the fun, weird and beautiful things we have seen on this trip. Now we will catch up with some of stuff that happened back in Sydney before Christmas.

We had a lot of fun in New Zealand and Christchurch specifically. Here are a few of the things we managed to do on our last day there. Christchurch is really starting to rebuild, and part of that rebuilding is to create fun and interesting spaces within the CBD. The old tram has been put back in operation partially, but we decided not to ride it since it was $10 per person and only went about a kilometre. We did like some of the other street spaces that were created, with SV especially liking the street piece music instruments. We also had a good time listening to bands at the restart container mall while munching on tasty gyros. We did a bit of shopping and SV found a manikin with a baby that she could play with. We all ended up enjoying some smoothies before heading back to the hotel.

Fun with hair

Now that SV has a bit more hair we have a bit of fun with it, especially during and after a bath. Here are a few examples when we had a bit of fun in Christchurch. SV didn't mind, in fact she wanted us to play with her hair.

Akaroa trip

On a recommendation we took a side trip to Akaroa to see the ex-French village. These days it's less French than we hoped, but it certainly was a nice place for a day trip. The drive through the mountains was also quite nice. SV made sure to run around in the park and beach before heading to the pier to see if any of the cruise ships were coming in.

Christchurch CBD

For the last leg of our trip we stayed a couple of days in Christchurch at the Heritage Christchurch Hotel which is right in the middle of the CBD. It is one of the buildings that has been restored and revitilised since the earthquake. It is really a nice building, both on the inside and out, and must have been quite a good place to stay before the earthquake decimated the CBD. We liked the hotel and SV was quite impressed with the lofty ceilings both in our room and in the hallway. We went for a walk to see some of the devestation and subsequent rebuilding. After a morning spent in the car, SV was more than ready to run around and was literally running circles around a tree in front of the cathedral. SV stopped at a phone booth to make a few telephone calls since she had spent so much time on the road. On the way back to the hotel we even took in some of the Christmas shop displays to start off the season.

Hot pools

Lake Tekapo has a complex which includes hot pools and during the summer a big inflatable slide. We made sure to take advantage of both, but the hot pools is where we spent the most time. SV hardly wanted to get out, until she was offered an ice cream bar which was part of the promotion for the slide. She certainly enjoyed the day of swimming and ice cream eating.

Duck training

While having breakfast SV and TV were visited by a group of ducks. They decided to make the most of it by training them to jump. There were two ducks that took to it rather quickly, and even though it scared her SV still liked having them jump for food. After breakfast SV did a quick count of the flock before we headed out.

Lake Tekapo Chapel

As the sun was slowly beginning to set, we took a quick trip from our camp site to a quaint chapel on the shore of Lake Tekapo. The chapel was surrounded by lots of blooming lupins (and tons of tourists). We walked around the chapel and took some family photographs and enjoy the last of the sun's warmth. SV even managed to walk Geoffrey around for a while before they both got tired.