New Zealand – 6th Dec 2008 - Day 44

The views over the lake were wonderful this morning. We slept in until 8.45am.

We packed and headed down to town for breakfast. We sat in the sun reflecting on out hiking and our the next leg of our trip. Australia!

We jumped in the car and began the 6 hour drive to Christchurch. The weather was great and we were rewarded with great views of Mount Cook and the bright blue lakes that lay at it’s base.

The drive was spectacular, passing acres of Natural Lupines, snow capped mountains and ice blue lakes. As we neared Christchurch, the clouds increased but it stayed dry. We kept stopping to take pictures of Mount Cook. Today’s papers are full with reports about two Japanese tourists who became trapped by the weather at the top of mount cook for almost a week. Yesterday, they managed to reach them by Helicopter. One of the died. Looking at the mountain today, it looks calm and beautiful.

We reached Christchurch for 4.30pm and headed for the airport to find the hotel. The hotel was not looking good, so we popped in to cancel our reservation, which they were happy to do.

We drove into the Centre of Christchurch, but could not find a good hotel. The Lonely Planet Book suggested going to a small costal town called Lyttelton. After a half hour drive we found the trown, but it was more like a port town. So we drove back towards the airport and found a good hotel called the Copthorne Hotel Commodore, see: http://www.commodore.net.nz/ .

John negotiated a better rate and we checked into a very nice room. Very modern with a space age bathroom and nice views.

We ate in the hotel restaurant which was fine. Food in NZ has been fine, but nothing special. Maybe we have been to the wrong places. It makes you realize how good most places are in the UK!

We chilled out with a DVD and zonked out.