Home Again

The next stop on our journey took us to Dunedin.  This was by far my favorite city on the South Island.  We got into town early so we filled up the rest of our day with two tours. The first of these tours being a self-guided tour of the Lancaster Castle.  The history of the castle is a very depressing one but the castle itself was pretty cool. Googling the castle will bring up the torrid history as well as the haunted stories that people have experienced "paranormal activity".  I felt no chills and saw no specters so it must have been the ghost's day off. It was smaller than I was anticipating but the gardens were spectacular as well as the view.  I didn't take many pictures inside of the castle due to poor lighting (and I could have used my flash but we weren't supposed to even be taking pictures so I was being a rebel as it was).

There's a lot of pictures of flowers on request for Mom.  She's thinking about possibly using some of my photographs for decorating her house.  

The next tour we went on was a brewery tour of Speights brewery.  It was a quick but interesting tour where we met fellow Coloradean's who were living in Dunedin at the moment.  

The next day was our first full day of sunshine and no chance of rain.  So we drove up to Timaru and spent a few hours trying to soak up all the rays we could get on the beach.  The plan was to do two days of beach time and the weather was nice the next day but pretty cloudy.  So we skipped the beach and drove up to Akaroa, which was a cute little town that was sold out of every hotel room in the entire town (we we're hoping for a bed since Mom was having some back troubles).  So we camped again and walked down into town to enjoy poking through a few shops and eating dinner down by the water. The view from our campsite was the best of the whole trip by far. 

The next day, we drove up to Christchurch to spend our last two days there.  The first of these two days we went to the mall for some shopping, pedicures, and a movie. The movie we went to was August: Osage County which if you like a movie that doesn't happily end and you get no closure then this might be the movie for you, otherwise save yourself the $12. 

The next day, for our last day in Christchurch, we went to the city centre to a little shopping area that had been put together after the earthquake.  The shopping area was right in the middle of the earthquake damaged buildings but was made entirely of shipping containers.  I wished I had brought my camera because they did quite a nice job with the whole shipping container idea.  So after wandering around that area for a little bit we headed back to the hotel and did last minute laundry and cleaned out the camper van.  

And that's really the end of the journey.  A full day of traveling later and we were back into Denver just in time for the NFL Playoff madness that is happening.  The trip went by so fast I feel like I never left but honestly it was my favorite trip I have ever taken.  Every moment, even the riding in the car from point A to point B, was breath taking.  I can now watch all of the Lord of the Rings movies and recognize the landscapes.  It was spectacular and I can easily see myself going back again someday.  

Last year at the end of our Australia trip, I knew that New Zealand was in my future.  Now I end this blog with no plans of travel but every intent to travel the world more.  Who knows where life's going to take me next but I can't say I'm too afraid of the journey to get there. Goodbye Middle Earth, until next time...