Friday, 29th December, 2017
Our last day in Christchurch (as Ralph and Eve’s program was that we should be leaving our hotel by 1.30 pm to drive to Geraldine where we would have an overnight stop.) This gave us time to do some sightseeing – and the best way was to catch the vintage tram, which had its starting point right beside our hotel. The tram we took was actually an Australian built tram from the 1930’s and our driver and commentator was nearly as old!! Although we had walked quite a bit the other day, the tram brought us to other areas, which we had not yet discovered such as the private college for boys, which survived the 2010/11 earthquakes, and a residential area where houses survived the earthquakes as they were built of wood. After we had done one ride and seen all the sights, we hopped off to have breakfast at the Arborista – a new shopping mall with a great coffee corner in the atrium. This time breakfast was coffee and cheese scones. When we were ready, we hopped back on the tram and stopped at Quake City – an exhibition telling the stories of heroism, hope and loss as well as the science behind earthquakes. It was very intriguing with photos, video footage and various artifacts, including bits that had fallen off the Cathedral.
When we came outside again, we were on time to catch another tram, which took us back to our hotel, and still have time to do some sightseeing and manage to vacate our rooms on time and start our drive to Geraldine.
Ralph had suggested that we do not take the east coast road back to Dunedin, but rather go through the hills, which was more picturesque. And this was very true! After leaving Christchurch, we headed west and in no time we could see the mountains rising in front of us and our drive went through some hilly countryside. There is so much space here and most of the meadows are dotted with sheep or cows. Both the north and south islands of New Zealand stretch so far but the population is only 4.5 million. This results that you can have some pleasant driving without seeing any other cars for quite a distance while driving at a speed of 100km on the secondary roads.
At one point, we drove through a scenic area with a river that had carved a gorge through the hills. This was the Rakaia Gorge, where the river Rakaia was a fantastic glacial green blue colour and fed by the melting snows of the Southern Alps where it starts and ends in the Pacific ocean. At this time of year, the river waters are not so deep and the gravel bed was evident in various areas. We stopped to take pictures where two bridges cross the gorge – here one of the bridges is really narrow and still made of wood and iron but it gave an excellent vantage point to take pictures.
Our next stop was at Geraldine, where we spent the night. This is a pretty little village which definitely has old English vibes – old in the sense that life stood still in the 50’s of the last century. We checked in to our motel – Geraldine’s Motel, which was comfortable enough and then, made our way to the village centre. A pleasant stroll which ended up at the Village Green Inn. After a few local beers for the men and local cider for us ladies, we decided to have our evening meal here. It was ever so pleasant, sitting outdoors and the sun shining and everyone in a pleasant mood. It was still light at 9.30 pm but after dinner we made our way back to the motel as we had an early start the following morning. We were going to continue our drive and ending up in Dunedin – home town to Ralph and Eve.
