4/6/10 (timaru)
Timaru-Christchurch-Kaikoura
Today was a drive day. We headed up to Christchurch and walked around the city center a bit. I was looking for a guidebook for Australia at second hand bookshops but found no luck. I was very fortunate to find one for New Zealand at a good deal and thought I would give it a try again. I’ve learned that I really like visiting the second hand bookshops. They are very quaint and I wonder about the people who have read the books. And it’s always good to support the locals.
Jon has been on a search for two items the last few weeks: Maori music and some camera gear. We happen to stumble across a used music store and he was able to find some Maori music, which he is hoping to use in our New Zealand video recap. The camera gear proved to be a little more difficult. There are a lot of camera shops around but none that really specializes in camera gear. We stopped in at a local camera shop and the shopkeeper was very helpful in locating a nearby store that had what Jon was looking for. Apparently there are very few around in the country and we were lucky that Christchurch had one. We stopped in the store and Jon was in his happy place. He did some camera talk with the guy and also got ND filters that will really help with his time-lapse videos.
We decided to make a run for Kaikoura so that we can spend the morning exploring before our dolphin swim at noon. The only concern was that we were only able to get one spot for swimming with the dolphins though the tour company assured us that it was very likely that both of us would get in. We kept our fingers crossed since it would be a bummer if only one of us would be able to do it.
We stopped at a Kiwi family campsite and had a great meal planned: bbq chicken, Moroccan couscous, green beans, and a bottle of Pinot Gris that we bought in Marlborough at one of the wineries we visited. However, when we entered the kitchen there were about 30 German teenagers. It was a madhouse in there and our hope of enjoying a quiet evening was going to be tough. We made the best of it and still enjoyed our meal.
New Zealand, South Island in Daily Adventures
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