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Day 6 started off with hubby waking really early to take some photos of the famous ‘Beehive’ while I stayed under the blankets still snoring away!

By the time I got up and finished packing, the sun was up and out! We drove off to the airport, and after dropping the car off at Hertz rental area, we took a short walk to the terminal building. Upon checking in, we found that our luggage was overweight (no big surprise there actually!) and we had to pay the overweight luggage surcharge! Argh! Oh well…it wasn’t like there was anything we could discard…hehe…

On the plane, we sat next to a nice old gentleman who spent half the journey pointing out the different towns along the coastline from the plane window. Yes, we were flying that low…! The scenary changed dramatically as we flew over the south island…from low and green fields to mountains and lots and lots of snow!

Once we arrived, we made a quick stop at the visitor centre where yours truly collected even more brochures, then it was off to Hertz to pick up our car. And guess what? We got the same make and same ugly blue colour AGAIN! Fate or what?

The hotel that we were staying in at Christchurch was situated 15 minutes from the airport by car, and despite weather reports that it would be gloomy, the sun was out and it was a lovely, lovely day. And made even lovelier when we arrived at our ‘home’ for two nights, The Classic Villa, a boutique hotel situated right opposite the Art Centre along Worcester Boulevard. The hotel was actually converted from an old bungalow, and our room was situated on the ground floor, complete with an electronic fireplace, huge king-sized bed and a small but clean bathroom. The place looked exactly as it did in the photos online, and the room was absolutely spotless!

We quickly unloaded our stuff and headed out to Cathedral Square to take advantage of the weather. There were several food stalls scattered around the square and we decided that that’s where we’re going to have lunch! I wandered around and finally settled on weiners and chicken kebabs, while hubby had baked kumara with chilli con carne. We sat at one of the many benches and watched an acrobatic duo perform tricks, people playing with a giant chess set, a very fierce pigeon waiting from crumbs from our lunch while chasing away all other pigeons from his turf…what a lovely way to take in the town!

After lunch, we visited the famous Christ Church and took a walk around town, stopping by at a bakery to buy cookies and chocolate and orange mousse. By evening, we were back at the hotel deciding on whether we should make the drive down to New Brighton pier…and on hindsight, I’m so glad we did as one of the nicest photos we took during the trip was at the pier! It took us about 20 minutes to get there, and the sun was setting just as we reached. We quickly took out the tripod and set it up, and while hubby used the tripod to take photos of the pier, I wandered around taking more candid shots.

We spent almost one hour at the pier taking photos, and by the time we finished, it was well and truly dark and my fingers were frozen despite my gloves. Made a stop at New World to buy some groceries and fruits (oh, how I miss those overseas shopping centres with all the yummy pre-packed food!) before going back to the hotel.

Dinner was at Cook’n with Gas, an award winning restaurant situated just two doors away from our hotel. We were still quite early so the restaurant wasn’t too full yet. The restaurant was also situated in a converted bungalow, and the deco was very interesting…with empty bottles of beer lined up on shelfs and a deer head with a beer bottle in its mouth hanging from one of the walls!

While hubby ordered their Canterbury Rabbit with bacon and chestnuts, I had their set menu consisting of New Zealand green-shelled mussels in spruce beer, carved roast belly of pork served with roasted apple, bacon, brocolli with hay smoked kumara and crackling and ‘Kiwi’ for dessert (kiwifruit, banana & grape salad in a choux bun with hokey pokey ice-cream topped with roasted almonds & passionfruit-honey syrup). Of course, hubby helped me with the appetizer and dessert else I would’ve been too full to walk back to the hotel… The roast pork belly was the best dish I’ve tasted so far…absolutely yummylicious!

Before heading back to the hotel, we took one more pic of the Art Gallery at night…

We spent the rest of the night strategizing the next day’s outings plus downloading and backing up our photos…a nightly ritual that we’ve become so familiar with…*grin*