Longwhitecloudadventures: A taste of the South

We have just returned from a fabulous trip to the South Island on the motorcycle - 3,000 kms in ten days! There are about three hundred photographs and a couple of video clips to sort through and put up for you to see, but we thought you would like a little sample so here is a small taste of the South. And, Happy New Year to you all! Our 'New Year's News' will follow in the not too distant future!

The 'interislander' ferry is not the only one that gets folks safely across the Cook Straights back and forth from the North and South Islands of New Zealand. We discovered the Blue Bridge ferry does exactly the same job for a whole lot cheaper - they don't seem to advertise - we found them by chance and saved a pretty penny!

Known as 'high viz' - the yellow and orange fashion statement over the biker jacket does flap about quite a bit and gets irritating sometimes, but makes sure that we are seen from behind. The headlamp on the front of the bike hopefully makes sure we are seen from the front too!

Sometimes you ride on by and other times you get up off your tail and take in the magnificent scenery - photograph taking also a good excuse for a bit of a stretch of the old bones!

We wanted to see a particular bay near to Kaikoura - one of the scenes which I have painted, and en-route, came across this little rocky bay full of seals basking on the rocks and lolling about in the shallows. They seemed totally unconcerned with all the fuss made by tourists, campervans and cameras.

The sign inside the viola case says - saving for airfare to the USA to audition for the Julliard School of music! We made as much of a contribution as we could - she was doing such a fine job, we hope she gets there!

Cathedral Square in Christchurch has of course, a magnificent cathedral, but also the tourist information site and loads of shops selling all sorts of things that are light or ludicrous or fit into an envelope. The starbucks cafe was particularly welcome and we lolled about outside under leafy trees sipping iced coffees! Bliss!

Chose this particular picture of the tram in Christchurch which does a circuit around the historical points in the city, and which we rode on when our bones got weary of trudging around the town, because in the background you can see the scaffolding and suchlike in front of one of the older cathedrals which has been declared unsafe after the devastating earthquake in September and the subsequent 'aftershocks' which number in the thousands now. We just missed one by a day or two which had folks scurrying for cover again!

After settling on a motel, we would head off to a pub or similar eating establishment to tackle the 'where are we now' and 'what's there to see' and have a bite to eat. This picture was taken at a charming pub in the suburbs of Christchurch and from where we were sitting, we could see an advertising board for Nando's chicken - the first we have seen in New Zealand. Apparently, they are springing up all over the show!

Spectacular South Island scenery! We were continually amazed by the clarity and particularly the colour of the water in the lakes and streams - some serious blue, others so turquoise that you are tempted to keep checking if your sunglasses are not perhaps squiffing the colours!

There is a 'founders' village just outside of Nelson which has it's very own brewery - who knew there were so many different beer 'flavours'! The immense claim to fame there, is the fact that this little family run brewery has made it into the International 'Bible' of brew masters and has won numerous awards for it's beers

Be that as it may - we were much more interested in discovering if there were any South African beers listed in the prestigious book - and lo and behold - there we found Castle lager and Castle Stout! We were somewhat surprised that there was no mention of Black label or Windhoek or any other SA beer for that matter. Interesting.