Nelson Christmas Getaway Break

The week before Christmas we had a mini break in Nelson. Firstly we stayed overnight at Maruya Springs. They have changed up the layout of the reception area. Apparently they did this during lockdown. We got chatty to a family in the guests social room, where Mioni started playing with blocks that their 2 year old child was playing with. The family were from the states, originally on holiday here but then Covid happened. They decided to stay to see it through.
Mioni LOVED the warm water here. We started at the outside pools where a worker was taking temperate checks. We followed her around to the indoor pool so we could know which was the least hottest pool for Mioni's sake. The indoor one was the most suitable, so we stayed there.
The dinner was a set menu which is different from what we are used too here. Sabine chose the red meat option and I chose the veg option. The only other one would have been seafood. I also choose an apple crumble flavoured cider which was something different for a change. That night we didn't get much sleep due to Mioni being noisy all night, tossing and turning etc.
The breakfast buffet was gone, and the only decent option for breakfast was really small. Ergh.
We checked out the room, then went in the outdoor and indoor pools for a bit, then left for Nelson. The drive was hours. We did stop briefly at Maruya Falls waterfall again, and then for a coffee break at Murchison. We stayed in Richmond, a suburb of the city.

Nelson is quite a big place, and is nearly as far north as Wellington even though its on the South Island. There are a few interesting places to visit, one being 'Queens Garden', which is a Chinese garden, and the other is 'Miyazu Japanese garden'.

 

One of the days here we walked a stretch of Abel Taman. We caught the Sea Shuttle From Kaiteriteri to Tonga Quarry and walked south to Medlands Beach. I wore a backpack that had Mioni sitting at the back. It was hard going and we had to stop for a rest quite often, but we had 3 hours with plenty of time, so we didn't rush it. A highlight during the walk was a Fantail family with two chicks right above our heads. There was also a Weka that followed us for a bit, and another that tried to steal Mioni's hat from the backpack when we took a rest at the Medlands Beach. The boat was a good one so we didn't get wet at any point.

On another day we drove to Picton. We laughed whilst driving the mountain road cause there were these road signs to make it seem as if you have to travel zero kilometres an hour. In reality the '8' from the '80kmh' sign was covered up, just showing the '0'. lol.

 The drive was long, and once there we realised that Mioni didn't have her hat. It was missing. We looked around for a boat ride to an interesting bird sanctuary island, but the main one that goes to the island I went to in 2009 left at 8am so we missed that by hours already. Sabine was more so thinking of the other island which was very close by. The price to get to this peninsula (its not an island) is extortionate as you have to get there via boat. We reluctantly accepted and paid the $40 each. The boat ride was next to no time to get there. Its still a part of Picton harbour after all. Its a peninsular that's sectioned off by an animal fence. We decided to give ourselves 4 hours, but you could easily do the walk in 1 hour. We didn't see any birds other than a lazy Fantail sitting in a tree. I was expecting more. The track was well maintained so we could have taken the baby stroller, but I wore the baby backpack.

On the way back we laughed at this decorated Christmas tree in the middle of the nowhere in the mountain roads.
We dined at a sushi restaurant once back which was nice. One of the other restaurants we went too one evening was 'The Styx' in Nelson where I ate one of the best seafood pastas I've ever had. Also, Richmond has a decent pizza parlour.

On another day we visited Natureland Wildlife Trust Zoo. Its small yet compact and on the seafront, and you don't have to trek a mile just to get to an enclosure. They don't have big animals, but its still not bad. After that we went to the Beach Cafe nearby then to the play park where I played mini golf in 2009 with my parents. This time I took Mioni to a free trampoline area for under 5's which she enjoyed.

Going home we drove clockwise to Christchurch. We stopped off in Havlock to this quaint tea room, then in Blenheim for a quick look around. The East coast was raining, and Chevoit was closed. We eventually arrived in Amberley and stopped for an Indian dinner next to their Countdown.

Places We Visted Over the Last Month

On the 16th November we bought a Christmas tree online and a few decorations in some stores. We actually put the decorations up on the 11th December. We have a few interesting decorations such as a Christmas Pukeko. 

We visited the Antarctic centre. It wasn't a bad place to be fair, but it certainly wasn't worth the tourist prices. They had penguins though. They were the best bit. There was also a big snow room at -8°C, which blew snow around somehow. The 4D film show was okay I guess. It 'took us' to Antarctica and jolted our seats during the boat scenes. It was only a 15 minute video, but a bit of fun. There was a ride on a tank like vehicle that drove around a purpose build track outside. I went on it but Sabine didn't. It jolted my spine a few times going up and down the steep mounds, so its not for the faint of heart.

We have used the barbeque a few times. Its a bit tricky making sure the gas is lit as the wind can easily put the fire out, but it seems to work just fine otherwise. We cooked corn on the cob which was a winner. I haven't eaten that in years. 

On the 22nd November there was a cosplay party at Riverside Market so we attended that. There was a giant Pikachu walking around which was awesome. 

We have visited two places that set up awesome outdoor Christmas light displays. One was in a normal residential street which completely decorated their garden in lights with music, the second was in the country and was outrageous. Totally over the top. Its actually quite incredible. The second house is kinda secluded so they go all out and have music on at full blast and display as many tall light stands as they can. The best one was the death metal band singing among killer clowns. I talked briefly to the owner. He said he loves both Christmas and Halloween, but hasn't got the time to decorate both in the same year, so one area is dedicated to Halloween each year. I think the most impressive thing they had was a giant inflatable Santa that was nearly as tall as the conifer trees it was up next too.

Last Sunday we visited Steam Scene at McLeans Island, which is only open every 1st and 3rd Sunday of the month. It was a lot more busier than I initially thought it would be. They had two train circuits, one for a proper steam train, and another for a miniature train. They both followed similar paths through the wooded area. So much cooler than Paradise Parks.

We have also visited Papanui library for baby song time. It was really great but there are a bunch of NZ baby songs I now need to collect somehow.

 

The penguins in town is the same concept as Brightons Snow Dogs from 2016. They are dotted all around the city, painted in different patterns. This is one of my favourites.

The real penguin enclosure at the Antarctic centre.

Highlights of the Last Month

Homegrown are a brand of smoothies that have no preservatives. The spirulina and berry drinks were my favourites when we lived in Dunedin, however I've recently tried the Fiejoa one and it tastes a bit like elderflower so that's cool.

On Saturday 24th October Hagley Park held an Indian festival. In all honesty it could have been better. It was unfortunately 95% food stalls with no real fun. There was a sound stage with people singing songs for minutes at a time with only the two words "Hare Krishna" as the lyrics. Ergh. We walked around and drank a Mango Lassi each. At least the weather was nice.

We've been to the beach a few times. Not much to say other than its nice being on a sandy beach.

We were stopped by a woman at Pac N Saves car park one day. She saw us with Mioni and ran towards us with a bunch of knitted woollen hats for babies, insisting we took a few. She apparently had them handed to her from a a member of her church and didn't know what to do with them, so she had them on her to give to random parents with babies.

We visited Victoria Park. Its on a high hill to the south which overlooks the city. We took Mioni on the swings and slide for her first time. Also the fantails were friendly and close to us.

On the 30th we visited a cafe in a cool yet old looking building. Its called 'The Sign of the Takahe'. Apparently it used to be a meeting place over 100 years ago, and is 1 of 4 similar buildings in the area related to travellers going to and from Akaroa / Banks Peninsular. This cafe was being decorated in a Halloween theme. After that we visited The Sign of the Kiwi, a smaller cafe this time, located way up high on the hill, kinda near the radio tower. We spoke to a waitress and she told us the location for The Sign of the Bellbird, so we visited that. Unfortunately it's a ruin, and it used to be a house apparently. Yet it overlooks two views, one of Christchurch and one of the harbour of Lyttelton. Back home I Googled the location for The Sign of the Packhorse. Its in the middle of nowhere somewhere in Banks peninsular, yet it is used as a DOC Hut for trampers. It kinda makes me feel bummed out even more that the Bellbird place is a ruin. It's not that far away from civilisation. Maybe it suffered from a fire or something? This afternoon we went back to the beach, this time a bit more prepared than before. 

 

New Brighton has heated pools on the seafront, big enough to dip into and enjoy their warmth, so we did that one day.

On the 1st of November we went to this private garden in Governors Bay. Called Ohinetahi. It had many art installations around which were quirky, supposedly to fit the landscape around them. Fair enough. The gardens were very well kept too. After that we visited a nearby cafe, which took 40 minutes to serve the food :/ 

 

On Friday the 6th we were awoken by an earthquake. 4.6 on the Richter scale. This was my first earthquake I felt since living here in NZ over 30 years ago. It felt like a mixture of a truck passing by and being in a swimming pool, but it woke me up, so I wasn't fully awake. I woke Sabine up during it; she would have stayed asleep otherwise.

On the 7th we moved from Wigram to Papanui. Our expensive but new build place in Wigram was really nice and I got too used to it being our home. Such a shame we moved. :( The new one is a lot cheaper and is much darker due to lack of windows. Its a downstairs granny flat.

On the 12th we went swimming at the Jelly park pool. Sabine took Mioni to the small child pool and I did some lane swimming.

On the 14th we drove along Arthur's Pass and stopped at the Castle Hill, which has limestone boulders. Pushing the pushchair up the hill was tricky but doable. On the way up we passed a family where a little girl stopped at Mioni and wanted to make a huge fuss over her, holding her hand and talking to her. Next we attempted the first two parts of the walk to The Devils Bowl waterfall, but it was too tough holding onto Mioni. We got to the second swing bridge then headed back. We stopped in the village cafe and saw a Kea. On the way back we briefly stopped to look at Cave Stream Scenic Reserve but wasn't there too long. This evening we went to the bar/restaurant at Wigram. They had the live rugby match on. Argentina won their first ever game against the All Blacks. The fans in the bar were complaining at all the bad passes etc during the match. lol.

On the 15th we visited the nearby run-down zoo. Not many enclosures open to be honest. The kiwi exhibit was okay I guess. The place needs an overhaul. Its very large and has highly under utilised space. Its also very expensive. We wont be going back there any time soon.

A New Car and a Trip to Dunedin

In this post I will state the highlights instead of the exact dates.

For starters, we bought a new car. We shopped around online and found a trustworthy car dealer called Paul Kelly. We visited their garage in town and looked at what they offered. We needed a bigger car than what we've previously had due to our growing family. We ended up buying a Toyota Prius 2011 hybrid car. It only has one car key though, and ordering spares are VERY pricey. :/ I'm naming the car "Nescafe", as it has 'NCF' in its number plate.

We handed in our hire car a few days later.

New car, with old hire car on the right

A new car also meant buying a child car seat for Mioni. New Zealand has this huge superstore for baby's, called The Baby Factory. Its like the UK's Mothercare, only, still in business.

The worker in there said that some time ago, it became illegal to drive children under 11 years (or under 148cm tall) without a child seat. How times have changed! She said it gets awkward if you have your child's' friend ride in your car. In this instance you either need to own a spare car seat, or borrow that child's one from their parents. What a head ache! Oh, and car seats all have expiry dates on them. Roughly 12 years before they are deemed unsafe for use.

Putting aside the headache legal jargon that is child car seats, we bought one that Mioni approves, because she finds it so comfortable that she easily falls asleep in it!

We were told of a cool new place in town, which is under a year old. Its called Riverside Market. It like the hippest place in town, buzzing with lots of people. Its like a Tokyo/Japanese market in that there are a hell of a lot of shops/stalls, nooks and crannies and places to eat in such a small area. They thrive on selling real foods from all over the world. If you rush or walk too fast you would miss everything on offer. We have been there multiple times now, and ate at a conveyor belt sushi restaurant, had a sweet crepes, a souvlaki, a real German bratwurst hot dog, ate a burger, bought real Turkish delight, cakes, interesting real fruit tea, and also bought decent fresh bread. But there is much more there, including Italian cheese and interesting Asian foods.

Conveyor belt sushi

On top of this, we have also been to a really nice sushi restaurant which is kinda close by where our AirBnB is. Their sushi specialises in local Salmon. Its really good quality, even though I'm not the biggest fan of the stuff. To me they all taste kinda the same, despite what each one looks like.

We went for a short walk around a wetlands on a nice day. Pictures below.

All 3 of us are registered at a local GP. Mioni needed an injection to catch up to the NZ system. Her next immunisations are at 1 years old. I also got her registered on the Plunket system. Plunket are basically the equivalent of the baby health visitor that the UK does.

Mioni is getting old enough to start wanting to climb the stairs. She has 4 teeth now, the bottom and top front two teeth. She hates me cleaning them each morning and evening.

We visited Yue. He had been kicked out his room because the lady is caring for more kittens, so he is now based in the main room with a lot of other adult cats and kittens. He appreciated us being there, and I even got him on my shoulder for a while.

Labour won the election at 49% of the vote. Well done Jacinda! To be honest though, its hardly surprising as she's one of the best leaders in the world at the moment.

We also drove to Dunedin last weekend. The weather wasn't that great to be honest, but we enjoyed catching up with people we knew, including an afternoon with Gerald and Gaylene, our previous next door neighbours. A year ago Gerald was building an aeroplane in his garage. Well now he has had a hanger built in Taieri airport for his plane to be moved to for the rest of its build. Gaylene is looking forward to being able to park her car in the garage again! lol!

Sabine had an evening at a pub with Caroline, one of her ex-colleagues, and another time we both visited Rebecca, one of Sabine's ex-supervisors. That was a nice chat.

We went to see the butterflies at the museum, and dined in our old regular cafe's and restaurants. The prices have gone up about $3, but still just as good.

I drew this picture (below) at Governors cafe. I decided to draw a picture on their napkins again. This cafe encourages it, they actually display them on their wall. Last time I drew a flower that was sitting on the table. Not knowing what to draw, I asked Sabine and she said jokingly to drew a person with Venus fly traps for hair. So I did. But I wanted to add some other flowers too. I had no internet. I was drawing purely from memory and not being too judgemental on myself for getting it a bit wrong. I liked the idea of it being a bit abstract and imperfect. I handed it in before we left, so its likely on their wall now.

We also visited Orokonui Ecosanctuary despite the grey weather. Lucky it didn't rain. Their cafe is closed for good, as well as the opening times having changed from every day to Saturday to Monday only. We had the majority of the place to ourselves, though there were two other families around. The Robins were very active, and I saw a Rifleman very clearly at one point. The Kaka were not active at all.

As per usual, to get a fuller idea of things, I also film short videos which you can still find here: https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPQFbxh_BoDXEfEB7EpWaIuTYGzlFRzA1qc_4Ip2B9HVDqJiv7-Rr0AoUpiv0mmtg?key=T1ZZb1pRLXZ3Vk14YUVSSGs0Mm13N0ZQT0c4NERR

Getting To Know Christchurch

As well as applying for jobs, we have explored a bit of the city, and get handy tips from the people we meet along the way. There are multiple Pac n Save's, some smaller than others. The same with The Warehouse.

The Japanese ramen place we have been to a few times before is still just as good as it was, but the prices have gone up. The food courts in the mall serve roughly the same food as in Dunedin, and seem to have increased a few dollars. Outside of that we tried a local sushi place called Mugan which is only open during daylight hours. That was pretty good to be honest. Very fresh sushi.

The Botanic Gardens is nice. We only visited one time so far, but we have been to Riccarton Bush about 3 times. There is an amazing cafe there which is actually in the ground floor of an old stately building called Riccarton House. There is also a small enclosed sanctuary there with a predator fence. I have no idea how well kept it is from predators, but all that is in there are city pigeons, blackbirds and a few fantails. Its still nice walking around it. Outside of this is a nice garden, with small pockets of bluebells dotted around and emerging cherry blossom trees. There was an old woman who stopped us for a chat on our first visit. Nattering Nana she called herself. She was a nice lady who wanted to talk about all sorts of things. She lived up to her name. lol. Even though she talked for ages, we didn't mind. We contributed to the conversation. It was actually pretty nice to be honest.

The AirBnB provides some DVDs for us to watch, so we have been doing so.

On Saturday we visited a German cafe, where we each had a leberkase sandwich. After that we visited Jellie Park for a walk around, where there was a lake and ducks. They also have frisbee golf here for free which seems like a cool thing to do one day. We also inquired at the swimming pool that was there just to get accustomed to membership fees etc.

A leberkase sandwich, something I didn't think I would see in New Zealand

On Sunday we had a lovely 'ploughmans' lunch at Riccarton House. Don't get me wrong, it was nice, but alas no Branston Pickle. NZ doesn't really know about the Branston flavoured pickle. I don't care about the knock offs, they are all the same in my opinion. But its very hard finding it out here. Eating here is very much like taking a step back in time, kinda like eating in a National Trust property, but better, and quieter.

After that we decided on the fly to drive to Akaroa for the afternoon, as you do. The drive is spectacular, and the seaside village is a bit touristy but still a bit of fun. We had real fruit ice creams. I had the boysenberry flavour, Sabine had the banana. Hers was strangely better. Mine was more like a generic berry flavour, sadly. No photos nor videos were taken of this afternoon excursion. The weather was glorious. I wonder how busy it would have been if there was international tourists around? It made me think about how things would have been in say the 1980s when I was living here as a kid.

On Monday we visited the cats for the last time with all three of them together. Calcifer and Hermione will have new owners to another young couple.

The last ever photo of the 3 cats together

Today we looked at registering with GP's. Mioni is eligible to be seen by Plunket, a NZ child organisation which I think is a bit like the baby health care visitors from the UK. So that's good. We still need to register her with a GP.