by Kristin Echols | Feb 20, 2016 | New Zealand, Travel
Today was a driving day, Christchurch to Oamaru. Once again lots of beautiful countryside, green rolling hills, agriculture, sheep, cattle and hecka hedges. The drive was mostly inland, but we stopped at the seaside port town of Timaru for lunch. Considering we booked...
by Kristin Echols | Feb 18, 2016 | New Zealand, Travel
There are about a billion different adventure activities you can sign up for in New Zealand. Unfortunately, many of them involve great heights which are not my thing. Why jump off a perfectly stable bridge, building, mountain, etc.? However, today we found earth-based...
by Kristin Echols | Feb 18, 2016 | New Zealand, Travel
We started the day in Kaikoura with a quick stop at the local patchwork shop. A Patch of Country is a cute little house packed with quilting fabric and supplies, yarn and knitting patterns and handmade children’s clothing. I was picking through the New Zealand...
by Kristin Echols | Feb 17, 2016 | New Zealand, Travel
We left Nelson in the pouring rain this morning. Just one more variable to add to driving on the left, crazy road signs, logging trucks, one lane bridges, and roundabouts. Shawn safely maneuvered us through it all to arrive safely in Blenheim in the Marlborough wine...
by Kristin Echols | Feb 16, 2016 | New Zealand, Travel
We were up and out the door at 6:45 this morning. We caught the bus for an hour ride from Nelson to Marahau to meet our water taxi and enter Abel Tasman National Park. We boarded the water taxi and then since the tide was out, it was pulled down the beach by a tractor...
by Kristin Echols | Feb 15, 2016 | New Zealand, Travel
Knowing that we would be beer tasting today, we started our morning walking about downtown Nelson to get our step count up. Our first stop was at Jens Hansen The Ringmaker, not for me but for Shawn. Jens Hansen created the One Ring for the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit...
by Kristin Echols | Feb 14, 2016 | New Zealand, Travel
You’re probably wondering “where are the sheep?” There are lots of sheep and cows, but we’re usually driving past them at 100 km/h. On the advice of our server last night, we drove up to Te Mata Peak this morning to ge