18.05 Rakaia Gorge

Day trip to the Rakaia Gorge with a stroll along the Rakaia River and a little picnic!

17.05 Highlanders vs Crusaders

Our first Rugby match ever - the Highlanders verus the Crusaders! On a chilly evening we headed to the AAMI stadium in Christchurch, where queuing up for our tickets we were approached and offered FREE ones! Well, Sara was offered two to begin and once she said there were four of us another two tickets appeared! Result!!

Pre-game entertainment! The Crusaders send in the troops!!

The game in full swing!

To use the line from my favourite PaknSave advert 'Who's that' in the background? Answers on a postcard to the usual address!

27.04 Day Trip to Akaroa

We went for a day trip to the French settlement of Akaroa on the Banks Peninsula, just outside Christchurch.

Our journey took us through the Hilltop, where we had views over the hills and sea inlets, and a little someone poked their head through the fence!

We then stopped at Flea Bay for some pictures of the boat houses.

20.04 Diamond Harbour

We had a little 'family' outing with Sara & Matt to Diamond Harbour for a picnic and a little stroll!

Digging in! Sara, Matt and myself enjoying a brew!

Look at the sky! Try and ignore the catalogue pose with the white china mug! Nice cup of tea though!

Across the bay.

Diamond Harbour. Boats moored up in the harbour. Looks quite tropical!!

18.04 New Country New Car!

Some new wheels were in order to explore the new country we've decided to call home for the year! After the moderate success with the Magna, with the added benefit/feature of car camping, a wagon was always going to be the order of the day.

After much time spent trawling the classifieds on TradeMe and walking the 'strip' in Christchurch looking for the perfect wagon, we decided to look at Turners Car Auctions.

We spent pretty much a whole day working our way through the catalogue looking at some potential transport/sleeping quarters:

A Toyota Previa - ideal as all the seats fold flat to produce a bed & picnics could be enjoyed in the rain while sat in the comfort of the captain's chairs! However it smelt of wet dog & the passenger seat was broken!
A Landrover Discovery - Great 4x4 vehicle, exactly what I wanted for runs into the snowfields and along unsealed roads! Unfortunately, it just wasn't big enough to sleep in, and the V8 might have been a little thirsty too! Others included a Mitsubishi Pajero, a Mazda Capella (626), and a couple of Golf's - been there, done that!

With the plan of heading back to the auction that night, we wanted to check the cheaper end of Moorhouse Avenue. And it just so happened that there was a Subaru specialist, Crowesport, with some cars within our budget! Joanna had always wanted a Subaru for as long as I could remember, especially a blue one with gold wheels! After a test drive and a little chat with Trevor the car was ours!?

So here it is, our 1996 Subaru Legacy GT (B-Spec) wagon, Lexie - Joanna's choice! It has a 2.0L twin-turbo (sequential) motor, which we thought would help us see the all of the country in the short time that we have here. The wheels & the suspension (Bilstein) are factory options, the exhaust perhaps isn't. Try and find a vehicle without a 4 inch exhaust in New Zealand?! I haven't been in a car this stiffly sprung since I was in a Ferrari 348! It certainly shows you where your wobbly bits are!

Crowesport provided us with a 3 month warranty on the car (included in the price), which was just as well, as the cooling system had a bit of a leak (did have to write a list of issues for the problem to be solved finally) & the rear washer spent a lot of time dribbling! We won't talk about the front washers!? Trevor & Linda were very understanding though.

Having had the rear washer sorted out I noticed that water was dripping on our boot cover. So I took a jug of water out and had a look around, it was at this point that I noticed that the rubbers for the washer pipes had not been put back. So I fitted them properly, closed the boot and went to pour the water only to hear the car lock itself! Hmm, I could clearly see the keys on the boot floor!?! Our immobiliser has a special feature that locks the doors if the car is open for a certian amount of time! I called a locksmith who took 3 minutes and 80 bucks and reunited me with the keys again! Lesson learnt!!

31.03 Christchurch & The Port Hills

Our first few days in Christchurch were spent getting ourselves orientated and settled in, along with looking after Mog!

After a bit of a late arrival, Joanna relaxes down and is joined by Mog, the house cat!

Surprise! Surprise! Nathan having a cup and a TRAM in the background!

Looking back over Christchurch and the Canterbury Plains, from then Sign of the Kiwi.

The view from the Summit Road looking over Rapaki Bay!

Christchurch & the Plains!