Leaving the North Island

July 10-11

Tif and I said goodbye to Caitlin and saw her off on the bus to the airport. We spent the afternoon at the Auckland museum which was a nice way to finish our time on the North Island- kind of full circle from starting at Te Papa museum in Wellington. Auckland had a good amount of Maori artifacts including a giant war canoe and one of only two remaining "birdman" kites. We picked up some interesting information- for example, the greenstone hand clubs we had been seeing were used in combat, but in a jabbing motion at the face and neck. That explains a lot!

We had a really nice dinner at a Thai restaurant and an early night to bed before heading off to the airport early the next morning.

We arrived in Christchurch after an easy flight. There was some confusion. Picking up our rental car- we hadn't realized it was a school holiday in NZ and Oz and therefore super busy, but after a few slightly desperate phone calls and conversation we had Jenny II and were off. (Turns out once I was able to check my email a few days later the rental car company had initially confirmed our reservation then had emailed me to say they didn't actually have a car for us. Oops)

We armed ourselves with maps and headed north out of the city to Hamner Springs, an area known for it's natural thermal pools. After enjoying the ones in Rotorua so much we figured these were worth the hour or so detour. Again, we forgot that it was a school holiday and also a Saturday. The pools were swarming with people and crawling with kids and it was anything but relaxing or peaceful. We tried a few of the quieter pools but they were too cold to sit in for long and we ended up in the hottest- and most "natural" pools. Unfortunately everyone was practically shoulder to shoulder and there was an older couple next to us singing to each other and a family giving one another foot massages. Combined with the rotten egg smell of the sulfur it couldn't have been much less pleasant. We stuck it out as long as we could, then high tailed it to Kaikoura.

Our backpackers here was the Dusky Lodge which was a whole warren of rooms interspersed with kitchens and sitting rooms and big fireplaces. They had a pool and spa and in the summer a Thai restaurant- it was a substantial place but still felt cozy. There were all sorts of funky furnishings- lots of big slabs of wood and old rusty farm tools and above the fireplace where we spent the evening was a big whale vertebrae. We sat in front of the fire all night and made friends and found good conversation. It was a nice way to spend a cold, stormy night.