Leaving Queenstown by bus at 7:45 am we drove a fairly short stint to a little town of Arrowtown, a historic gold mining village. It was so early that nothing but restrooms were open but we walked around for few minutes before getting back on the bus and moving on.
We were riding through the central part of the country where it was much drier and the vegetation was golden brown, a change from the green forested coastal area. We stopped at Lake Tekapo, an alpine lake, and had a look in the tiny little Church of the Good Shepherd that had a front window with the lake in view. There was also a statue nearby honoring the sheep dog. All through this area there were big flocks of sheep in the hills and fields.
For lunch we went to Morelea Farm with Angie and Stan Taylor hosting. We had a wonderful meal of beef, lamb, salad, carrot salad, peas, potatoes and then pavlova for dessert prepared by Angie and her helpers. We ate in the home and on the porch. Stan and Angie raise beef cattle, about 180 head, and sheep, about 4000 head. After eating lunch Stan talked about his farm and that the animals live off the grass that is grown as no grain is used for feed. Interesting lunchtime.
We arrived in Christchurch a little past 5pm and quickly made our ways to our rooms. We all met together at 7:30pm for our farewell dinner at the hotel. Pictures were taken, good byes were given. Katie, our tour director, gave Tom and I a figurine honoring our 50th anniversary. Another nice meal with a nice group of folks. Tom and I didn't tarry too long as we had a 4:30am pick-up time from the hotel to go to the airport for a 7am departure to Sydney, Australia in the morning to begin our trek home.
Cape Cod Canal
4 hours ago
