Day 6 , On to the south island

The hard thing about doing really important stuff when you're on vacation is that you wake up way too often wondering if you've accidentally overslept. So began day six, where it was absolutely vital that we make the 9:00 a.m. inter-islander ferry to the south island. We knew it was a short trip from the hotel, but got up early so there would be nothing left to chance. I think we were the 3rd car in line. The Ferry ride is an extremely scenic 3 hour trip around the tip of the south island, across the cook straight through Picton Harbour an in to Picton. It was really cool to watch all of the freight and trucks get loaded on to the ferry. (before the cars) and then we cautiously drove on to the boat ourselves. I'd read stern warnings about taking a Dramamine before you get on, because it could be interesting, but our passage was quite smooth.
We grabbed some breakfast on board, and even had a beer to help make the trip a little easier. The views from the upper deck were worth the price of admission, bu there's a movie theater, a business class style deck (we decided it wasn't worth the upcharge this time) multiple places to eat or drink and even some live music. The good news about being early to the ferry is you're first off too, so we were quickly on our way to the Picton i-site. We needed a place to stay in christchurch, an a nice lady there found us a place recommended a place to eat along the way, and told us about Ohau bay seal colony. I wish I'd gotten her name, because she was absolutely money on recommendations. We took the scenic coastal road carefully eyeballing every sign, and wishing longingly that we had time to stop at the hundreds of wineries we passed (next time...) Just when we were giving up hope of seeing seals in the wild, along comes a sign that was a good candidate, and then another. Our two stops were the seal colony, and a scenic waterfall walk. We went too far to catch the scenic walk, so we decided we'd go back to it after dropping in on the seal colony. They were mostly lazily sunning themselves on the rocks and occasionally moving around, having little seal fights, and making some noise. Having what we thought was our fill of seals we went back to the must see scenic walk, and it was 10 minutes as advertised. We got to the waterfall at the end, and found a young seal swimming in the pool below it. I got down on a rock, and he didn't take to kindly to that and promptly chase me off of it. Then three more of his friends came waddling up the creek to play too. Eventually we made our way to kaikoura to the third place our i-site lady recommended the Kaikoura Food Company. You absolutely must make this stop if you're on the road. Make sure you try the rum raisin fudge too. We then made our way to Christchurch and checked ourselves into the Lattimer Hotel. We were excited that it had laundry facilities, and the concierge recommended a restaurant for us. We never made it to the recommendation, after driving in too many circles on the one way road we finally just parked someplace and walked until we found a menu that looked good. It was a little late, and apparently the staff at Viaduct decided to spend all their time on their closing duties rather than help us. I'd totally bash the place, but the food was actually really really great. I had some farm raised venison that was awesome. We had a beer at the hotel bar, and chatted for a while with the Irish bar tender, he wanted to talk US politics and immigration policy too. We then settled into our spacious room for the night with plenty to do the next day.

Beijing Day 2

Fall at the Temple of Heaven
Originally uploaded by jrherron.

We didn't exactly set the world on fire getting out of bed on our first full day, but eventually made it for our breakfast at the hotel, they served a nice mix of english style breakfast and a few chinese dishes and lots of fresh fruit, including dragon fruit a new favorite of mine. Our first stop was the framing store to get a few of my pictures framed. We needed something else to decorate the walls of our house and wanted something to remember our travels by. So we had lots of decisions about frame styles and matting to make. We then grabbed a snack at a cute little French bakery that I really should have taken a picture of so I'd remember it now, but life's like that some times. Then we decided we wanted to go see the temple of heaven. We didn't have one of the hotel cards that had it's name written in Chinese, but randomly Betty had a postcard with a picture of it on it, and we jumped in a cab and said please take us here. it worked, and off we went. It was a gorgeous afternoon, and there were still some great fall colors to be seen. its hard to believe how much beautiful stuff is nestled in among this smoggy city of 7 million people. The best moment of the trip came when the four of us were huddled around a sign trying to figure out where to go next when a young Chines boy walked up to us with a big smile and waved and said hello. Our tourist instincts made us think he wanted to sell us something when in fact he just really really wanted live subjects to practice his English skills with. We were honored he chose us. We Grabbed an early meal at a really great Malyasian place called Cafe Sambal. They served really great samosas, a mango spring roll, a fried whole fish dish that was amazing, and despite the fact that we were sitting outside in the cold, we really enjoyed. We also had the four sided bean, a new vegetable for me that our waitress recommended, and I would gladly eat it again and again. Then it was off to the Silk market, which according to the shopping bags they give you is one of the 3 must do experiences in Beijing. (The great wall, and eating roast duck being the other 2) I got myself a nice new jacket right at closing time that is a super Polo knockoff.