12th July Endoras

Well not quite! We woke to the sound of the wind howling round the lodge and unable to see the mountains we had watched the night before, consequently Hassle Free Tours phoned us at the Lodge to let us know our tour was cancelled. We will get in touch with them nearer the end of the week to see if we can try again. So after the breakfast buffet of cereal, toast and yoghurt around a log fire, we headed out into the rain and onto Christchurch. As we drove the road bent in a strange way and we ended up at a gorge. So out we leapt in the wind and rain to take grey pictures.

From here we headed onto Christchurch with the weather getting progressively better the closer we got. Our maps weren’t much use so after braving the one way system and passing the barriers erected to stop people entering the centre of town, we stopped at  PaknSave and were pleasantly surprised to find just the thing we needed. Onward then to the aviation museum.

Another well presented museum, with a flight simulator for a mosquito that Maddison tried. She also tried the ‘Captain Jack’ coat  that was available to wear to ward off the chill of the display room. It didn’t stay on long as it was heavy and didn’t fit properly over her hoody.

From here we drove to the wildlife park at the back of the airport. We saw the usual lions (but didn’t take part in the lion encounter $30/£15 each) and tigers but even though we looked very hard couldn’t spot a kiwi. Geoff has made it his goal to see one so we may be visiting other places! The most exciting part was feeding the giraffes, Maddy and Geoff joined in while I took pictures.

By now it was 4pm and we headed back to Timaru ( a 2 hour journey with New Zealand speed limits) to a wonderful dinner of roast pork, mash, gravy, veg, roast potatoes and rice. Lynn is really looking after us well. Dinner was followed by a dvd (Jackie Chan in The Spy Next Door) as the boys had got excellent report cards at the end of the school year.