We arrived in the late afternoon and wondered around town. Everything looks very French and the street names were French as well.
The French actually arrived before the British at the peninsula and wanted to claim it their own, because it was a good area to catch wales. The French went back to France to ask if they can keep the island and in the meantime the British claimed the land.
After our sightseeing we started to look for a place for the night. We started to drive up the mountain to look for a more remote area.
At the top of the mountain we saw the clouds making their way above the mountain top into the valley.
There we found the sign about the below retreat and driving along off road tracks we found it. We were able to camp there and use their bathroom and kitchen facilities.
We cooked dinner and met a French Canadian couple who prepared Abalone (a shell fish a little similar to Scallops). They collected the Abolone themselves and had too many so we were able to try them as well. It was delicious.
During the night it was raining and winding like there would be no tomorrow. We really had problems to fall asleep as it was so noisy in the tent.
But against all odds there was a morning and what a beautiful one. We were able to clean the tent and dry it before we went on a drive to admire the views.
We were on our way to Christchurch.
When we arrived in Christchurch we were aware that there was a devastating earthquake just a year ago, as we were listing to the radio and they had the one year memorial on the 22.03.
When we arrived close to the city center we saw still clearly the signs of the earthquake. A lot of the high rise buildings are still collapsed and in a bad shape. The whole city center is actually gated off. Then we had the next surprise, it was extremely difficult to find a bed fir the night. Because of the earthquake the city lost a lot of beds and maybe because of the memorial the day before the city was still full. We found a lovely hostel with help from other hostel owners.
The next day we returned our car and the company drove us to the airport there we had a flight to Auckland.
We arrived late afternoon in Auckland and had a flight to Australia the next day at 7 am, so we decided to stay at the airport for the night. We had our dinner at the domestic terminal and got explained by a lovely cleaning lady that this terminal will close soon, but the international terminal is open 24 hours. So we took the bus to the international airport and looked for the observation deck, as it was mentioned at a web page to be the best place to sleep. I have to say it was really comfortable. We had 3 seats each without armrests in between were we were able to lay down.
This is the web page that gives you the best overnight locations on airports:
http://www.sleepinginairports.net/
For more pictures click on the following link:East Coast
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