Not much of a day, just a long drive back to Christchurch, in order to fly back to Auckland, in order to fly to Tahiti (Yay!)
Good roads at the start (would be better on the right sort of bike), but once you get into the Canterbury plains it’s the dullest place in the world. Nothing but flat land, sheep shearing, and useless Chinese tourists who thought a self-drive holiday would be a good idea even though they’ve clearly never driven a car before.
Hidden at the top of a hill just off the road, another perfect picnic rock for a lunch break:
And multiple attempts to take an artsy photo of some red berries against a really blue lake. Totally failed to capture how striking it really was:
Back at Auckland, and hire car number 7. This time a Skoda Superb. (Hey Gary – It’s bloody good!)
And another hotel room free on points. Upgraded to a suite, which has a, well, it has a view:
Never mind, eh. My status (in the hotel loyalty scheme, not real life) means I get a free drink, but nobody knows how to make a mojito so I get 2 free drinks (edit: doesn’t help much cos they can’t make a martini either, and a simple G&T is totally ruined by being drowned in 6 gallons of tonic), and my Skoda is the 2 litre petrol turbo engine, so it should be fun for a morning trip round the Coromandel peninsula tomorrow before my flight to Tahiti (Woo Hoo!)
PS, people over here really do call women “sheilas”