Off to Visit the Kiwis!

Sigh, today is our last day visiting the kiwis .   Tomorrow morning we’ll be returning our much-used Tuscon and climbing about Air New Zealand’s flight from Christchurch to Auckland.   But today we have one more chance to explore this glorious country.   We’ve cleaned out the car, had a leisurely breakfast in our own kitchen, and watched the crazy morning news people. Milly is such a love!  She isn't really this fat, though!  Now we’re off to Sumner, the part of the city on the water, where the effects of the earthquake were very pronounced.   There has been a great deal of restoration done already;   but you can still see scaffolding and the effects of rock slides.   We tried to drive downtown but the road and building construction makes navigating difficult   and we decided we’d seen enough and headed to lunch.   Later, we met Brad, our host, and he said the locals had trouble navigating, too, because so many of their landmarks were gone. 

Today is the marathon drive back to Christchurch and we are up early enough to be all packed and have breakfast at 7:30!   True to his word, Tony (turns out his name isn’t really Michael!!   My bad!) has everything prepared before we appear.   We’re the only ones in the dining room and he comes over to our table and chats while we’re eating.   He told us yesterday that a friend of his who manages a hotel in Nelson went to Wellington on business and the room that he usually rents for $128 dollars cost him $525!!   The Lions and Allblacks are playing!   Today we asked him if he ever goes to the annual competition for the World of Wearable Art and he said that he’s love to, but the accommodations are too expensive!   See above!!   We chat about NZ politics and accents and how the Australians aren’t very nice to the Kiwis.   He suggests that we stop to see the Maruia Falls on our way back south and we consider it.   He also shows us photos of a Nelson sunrise th