Rob & Liz's Blessed Adventures

  Tomorrow we say goodbye to Christchurch and make our way to Wellington.   Our final 3 days here have been a bit of a see-saw with fun and relaxing.   Robbie had his final 2 games of cricket.    Alas his team did not get into the finals played off for 5th 6th, but lots of lovely memories and memorable events. Highlights from the cricket - he bowled the final over in one of these matches, one resulted in his team winning. He had 8 runs to play with and ended up with a wicket and 3 runs off it.  A lot of pressure in the last over.   Also got run out with direct hit during the match.  He bowled a couple of overs in the last match and took a wicket from 3 overs. Lunch apparently was not a highlight, but I enjoyed the fruit that came home after each game. 😉 Not great for the price we had to pay Dinner each night at the Christchurch Casino, courtesy of some vouchers that were provided to all players and their accompanying spouses....

 Our journey has taken us full circle of the South Island and we are now in Christchurch until Sat 29 Nov. The Australian National over 65 cricket is in NZ this year so we're here for the week. The last day at Hanmer Springs was fairly chilled. We did 1 walk through through the Fairy Door walk, where children have made lots of small tree houses and they have them throughout the walking track on or near trees. Popeye fairy house Various fairy houses   The other Sculpture walk track was close due to the massive storm that had ripped through the are at the end of Oct.  Next on to Christchurch where Lizzy went and visited a craft fair. Then went out to have a look at the beach here before going on to our accom. There is a huge pier extending around 150m out from the shore. The sand on this side of the island is sandy and dark in colour unlike the west coast. Day 1 of the cricket nationals went off without a hitch - but we lost to NZ. Nothing to write home about in this match....

Yesterday we ventured up the West Coast in the fog, cloud and rain to Greymouth. This is where you can catch a train across the South Island to the East Coast. Famous sign at the beach Pretty miserable day and rough seas On our way up the coast we stopped at a cool little town called Hokitika which is on the beach. A smallish town with lots of unique stores. This are is known for Jade, so lots of stores sell these items of jewelry and such. We also got to pickup a real Paua shell. They are really colourful and lots of tourist stuff is made from bits of it. As you see it was raining and the sea was rough as. We wondered around the town taking in the local wares. Next onto Greymouth for the night where it was still raining and the Lizzy's quilt store was closed till late Nov- she was a bit disappointed again. (nothing to spend money on :)  ) Grey river at Greymouth The town had a lot to do with gold mining in the early days, so no eating the fish from the river in town. They say too ...