It looked like a long day's drive on the map, but Ellen had planned lots of stops, and was confident that we would still be there about 4.30. I must say that our whole group are very good at being on the bus - or at least queuing to get on - by the designated times. I can recall only once that we had to wait for anyone. Lloyd timed us getting off the bus at a stop one day and it took six minutes. It is longer when we have shifted from one town to another, and there is more hand luggage being put on the racks or taken down. Probably my one gripe is that they will not use the back door, as there would be no-one to assist us to alight, which slows the whole process down dramatically.
Our first comfort stop was Amberley, only 45 minutes after we started. We pulled up outside a memorial to Charles Upham, the double VC winner, who grew up here.
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| The Amberley Library |
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| Amberley Craft Market, held every Friday, with an excellent selection |
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| Amberley Presbyterian Church, made from local river-stones |
Morning tea at Cheviot, then up the Kaikoura coast. Several double tunnels, which we found interesting to go through. We are sitting in the second row back, behind Wayne for today's trip, so get great views of everything.
We stopped at the Avoca Peninsula, where there is a marine reserve, and saw one seal by a memorial. He kindly performed for us the whole time we were there.
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| Spot the seal (just left of the memorial) |
Fyffe House at the same stop is a horrible pink which clashes terribly with the surrounding area, and evidently tells the story of the whaling carried on here, which neither of us was interested in seeing.
Lunch at Kaikoura, and then another photo stop at 1.30 at the fur seal colony on Ohau Point. Seals everywhere, sleeping, playing, diving, two males huffing at each other - we could have watched for an hour.
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| A quote from AA Milne springs to mind - "I saw little rabbits 'most everywhere" |
Afternoon tea was at Blenheim, and Lloyd chose to stay on the bus, so I wandered one way down the main street and found an ice-cream, then directed several others to the same shop on my way back. I guess everyone had the same idea.
As we stopped there for nearly an hour, I then trotted on past the bus, parked at the war memorial, and found the Anglican church. It appears to be a relatively recent rebuild, so I was not terribly interested until I came across two plaques to a previous minister by the name of Thomas Samuel Grace, whose story I had been listening to at Timaru. His grandson David is on the tour with us!
Arriving at Picton we discovered the Beachcomber Hotel is like two sides
of a U, and everyone had a balcony facing the harbour, so soon there
were folk sitting out on their decks with drinks admiring the view.
Although this hotel does have a restaurant, their prices are more than
Unique want to pay, and they also only do a-la-carte, no buffets, so
that makes it very slow for a large party. However the place we did eat
was only a five minute walk away, and the older members were driven up
in the bus by Wayne.
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| Beachcomber Hotel Picton |
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