Rain Rain Go Away

(Tamara, this one is for you!)

We certainly have struck out on the weather the past few days. We have woken up to cloudy skies and rain almost everyday for the past week. Blah! Oh, well, c'est la vie. We have still been able to do a lot.

So after Milford Sound we just chilled in Te Anau...because there is literally nothing to do there. It is the definition of a small town. Since there was nothing to stick around for, we got up early the next morning on Tuesday and drove eight hours back to Christchurch. Boy was it a long eight hours. The six hours to Queenstown was easy and then the two hours to Te Anau from Queenstown were easy, but put together they equal one long day.

Roads in New Zealand aren't like in the US or Australia. They are two lane roads...not freeways. This means you get stuck behind a lot of slow trucks and cars and oh random road construction where they decide to do blasting in the middle of the day in the middle of a mountain. Yep, real live blasting to make a road. Tim and I saw the sign and thought they were joking, but they weren't. So we turned off the car and opened up our books. We heard the blasting, which didn't make driving around the mountain easy on the mind. I kept thinking a rock was going to come down and hit us. Alas - we survived both the blasting and the drive. One positive to all the driving was the beautiful scenery. New Zealand definitely has every country I have been to beat on that. Absolutely beautiful!!!!




So anyway, we strolled into Christchurch around 5:00 p.m. We checked into our quaint and super cute B&B in the middle of town. It is an old Victorian house with so much charm. I loved it. We got settled and got some dinner. We got Mexican. It wasn't the best Mexican I have ever had, but it wasn't the worst. I mean New Zealand is pretty far from Mexico, and I think the farther you are from Mexico the worse it gets. HAH! Seriously, it wasn't terrible, and we quite enjoyed ourselves. After dinner it was raining (what a surprise), so we ran back to our B&B.

Cave Rock on the beach

The next morning we had a few hours to check out Christchurch, which was pretty much all we needed. We drove to the beach (it was FREEZING AND WINDY and reminded me somewhat of some of the New England beaches) and then walked around Cathedral Square and Victoria Park. Of course, it was raining, so we couldn't stick around long, which was fine because we had a flight to catch.

Old Victorian B&B


The church

So here we are back in Australia for our last few days. I can't believe we leave Sunday night/Monday morning. Time has flown by, but we have certainly enjoyed ourselves. Yesterday and today have been chill days.

We attempted the beach yesterday (Surfer's Paradise), but alas lame-o parking rules got us a parking ticket and bad weather made the water too rough to swim in. Therefore, it was a short day at the beach. We still got sun, though!!!



Also, poor Diane got bit by a nasty spider while were gone. Her hand was very swollen and she had to go to the ER. She is fine, but we have to keep paying close attention to it. YIKES!!!

Ok, all for now. Tomorrow morning (if the weather is ok) we are going waterskiing in the Brisbane River (hope no bull sharks or snakes get me) and then we are doing some HOT YOGA. Tamara, if I like it, maybe I can start going with you.

Oh, and one more thing. I am sooooooooooooooooo happy because I found out today that Timmy D and I don't have to ride Marta when we get back to Atlanta. My awesome Uncle Wayne and my sweet mom are driving all the way to the airport to pick us up. YAY! What a treat.