Akaroa

Our second to last day in New Zealand, Cathy took us to the farmers market in ChCh which was the biggest market we had ever been to. There were so many delicious pastries and treats and veggies and coffee...we bought a few things to have for lunch later that day. Between the free samples (lets face it, I'm a fatty) and the eclectic variety, It was the best farmers market I've ever been too.

After the market, we headed down to Banks Peninsula and at Akaroa, a lovely french village that was absolutely adorable and quaint. It was like going a retreat to another world, because it was so quiet and perfect. We spent much of the day walking around, going in little stores, eating food, sitting by the water...

On our drive back, we took the 'tourist' drive, which pretty much went around the rim of Akaroa, because the whole town in built in the sunken center a imploded volcano.

Looking a wee bit like a car salesperson

The view from the tourist drive.

I think I was going a bit loony...

He's so cool and artsy. I like him. 

It got eerily foggy while we were on the tourist drive...so much so that we couldn't see much anything and the sun was completely gone. 

That evening Cathy made us a delicious meal and we met her friend John. She was leaving for Sydney the next day and he would be house sitting for her while she was away. He had also offered to drive us to the airport on Monday to catch our flight to Sydney. After we ate, Cathy put on a short video about Fiordland and Milford Sound since we hadn't been able to go there.

Our very last day in New Zealand, we spent cleaning our rental car, doing laundry, packing up our travel packs, and just hanging out. That evening, after we dropped Cathy off at the airport and ate the wonderful dinner that John had prepared for us, we took a beautiful sunset walk to the racecourse that was right across the street from Cathy's home.

Don thought it was funny to take a bunch of ridiculous photos of me during our evening stroll...

The Pass of Arthur

To get back to Christchurch, we drove through Arthur's Pass which was breathtaking and gorgeous. We did a couple short hikes along the way, but it was pretty chilly and cloudy for much of the day.

And then we found the giant donut. Not sure what to say about this except that it was amazing and I don't know if I'll ever have an experience like this again in my lifetime. It had to be documented.

At first we were happy we found the donut...

And then we just got hangry, well maybe just I did, Don looks pretty okay. WE WANT TO EAT THE GIANT (PLASTIC) DONUT!

Upon arriving in Christchurch, we realized that we didn't have any place to stay for the night. I vaguely remembered that a family we stayed with thru Airbnb back in Waitomo had said they had had a friend in Christchurch with a place for us to stay. So we contacted their friend, Cathy, and little did we know, we were going to make a wonderful new friend.

There's nothing quite like absolutely beautiful coastline.

Cathy was so wonderful and generous in welcoming us into her home. We will always consider her one of the most amazing people we ever met during our travels. She lived in this wonderful little bright and airy home in ChCh with a wood stove. After a long stretch of traveling in hostels and such, we were so excited to sleep in a real bed and just relax for a bit. We spent our first night there cozied up by the wood stove drinking hot tea and talking to Cathy about her experiences in the earthquakes and traveling and all kinds of other things.

The next day, upon Cathy's suggestion, we drove out to Taylor's Mistake, an amazingly beautiful coastal cliff walk. Aside from our day on Waiheke Island outside of Auckland, it was the most beautiful coastal area we had seen in New Zealand.