New Zealand

October 31
As I mentioned in the last entry, my vacation started with a fantastic breakfast. My mom was going to arrive around noon so Leslie and I went downtown to do some shopping. We then headed over to the arts center where there was a big outside market being held. It is only on the weekends and we were lucky to be able to go. It is like a big outside craft sale, each vendor has a booth of stuff and it took awhile to wander around. We were basically enjoying being outside in the sun without having to be bundled up to our eyes. I felt naked with only a t-shirt and jeans on.

By then it was a little after noon so we headed back to the hotel to see if mom had gotten there yet. We found her in our room, pooped from the flight. We went back to the art center where there is a nice little cafe for lunch. I had a fantastic panini sandwich. All three of us walked around the market again. Since we were all tired from traveling, we decided to go back to the hotel and take a nap. I think we just hung out until it was time for dinner.

We met Mahesh in the lounge and all walked over to this little Italian resturant. Leslie and I ate there once before with Terry and we knew it was really good. It was a great dinner, I had pumpkin ricotta ravioli... sorry I was really excited about all the good food we ate. It was nice to have fresh food. After dinner, we all headed back to the hotel. Mahesh had a super early flight and went to bed. Mom was tired so she went to bed. Leslie and I watched a murder mystery on TV in the lounge. It was a nice relaxing day. Happy Halloween!

November 1
Leslie, Mom and I had another excellent breakfast. One of the owners of the hotel has a really neat old car and offered to take us for a ride around Christchurch. Here I am pretending to drive. I look pretty cool :)
Riding Dirty
Yeah I'm a dork but it was fun. We were able to see a bunch of sites and side streets that we wouldn't normally see. Afterwards, we headed downtown. We had lunch and then Leslie had to leave to catch her flight for Sydney. Mom and I headed to the visitor center. We checked out some things, booked a couple tours and rented a car for three days. We headed to a couple of towns outside Christchurch but I'll save that for the next couple entries. We went back to the hotel, Mom took a nap and I laid around the lounge and on the porch in the sun.

After relaxing, Mom and I headed to the botanic gardens. It was so beautiful. It is their spring so flowers were blooming everywhere. We walked along the Avon river and there were bunches of ducks. And baby duckies!
We went to the rose gardens but it was just a little early for all the roses to be blooming. There were a couple early ones. I took a bunch of pictures, here are a couple.
There were native gardens with some kick ass ferns...
huge trees...
and tons of flowers. I took about a hundred pictures of different flowers but I'm only going to put a couple up here. Wouldn't want to give anyone a flower overdose.
Mom was in flower heaven :) It was a fantastic afternoon. After that we walked across the street to the art center. The buildings are really neat and old.
We had plans to meet up with David from the seal group who was passing through after backpacking around the south island. We ate at the Dux de Lux which is a good little vegetarian and seafood restaurant. I had the fresh fish with this super good lime breading. Sorry food again. It was nice to see someone I knew and we had a great chat. We all walked back to the hotel together. The rest of the night, Mom and I relaxed. Mom read a book and I watched TV in the lounge for awhile. It was nice to have some normal tv again.

I'll continue our adventures in the next entry. Cheers!