Sumner Surfing Community to Kaikoura to Nelson to YOGA!

We spent a lot of time in a surfing suburb next to Christchurch called Sumner. The waves were pretty good while we were there:But it sure was busy... Yes, all of those black spots are surfers, not seals. On one of our day trips, Becky and Beth and I went to Castle Hill, near Arthur's Pass. We found this place where you can go caving for free! Beth wasn't feeling well, so she sacked out in the car while Becky and I put on our long johns, turned on our headlamps, and waded in to the waist-deep frigid waters to walk the cave from one end to the other (approx. 30 minutes). Brrr... It was cold, and spooky, but SUPER COOL! After warming up in some dry clothes, we set our sights for some rock climbing. Near Castle Hill, there's this place littered with BIG BOULDERS. Apparently, climbers come here from far and wide just to boulder these rocks. We gave it a go and climbed up this rock pictured below. Becky was a pro! even in jeans! We kidnapped Johnny out of the hospital one evening and took him to a rugby match. The Crusaders vs. The Reds (i.e., NZ vs. Australia). It was a good game, with NZ coming out on top at the end. It was fun being in the big stadium with everyone else. Every time the Crusaders scored, these big flames would shoot out in excitement. The flames would also get a little excited when the cheerleaders were out dancing about in short skirts. The final goal by the Crusaders, just before time ran out, confirmed their victory over the Reds. As we dropped Johnny off at the hospital after the game, he mentioned a craving for a McDonald's hamburger (not his normal preference; we blamed it on the steroids he was on for his condition). I decided that a craving like that would not go away and that we should do a McDonald's run just for him. I literally had to run into the joint to get the burger and be back before the buses started beeping at Becky for parking in their spot. We all ran into the hospital on our mission, but were stopped just shy of the elevator by the security lady. Damn! But, after explaining ourselves, she granted us access and gave us a pass. We hand-delivered the steaming package to John, who loved and savoured the nz-beef burger. Yum, yum. The next day, Beth wasn't well again, so Becky and Johnny and I drove through this cool tunnel on the way to Lyttleton. Lyttleton (see below) was nice to look at, for like a second, but then we moved on towards Akaroa, further down the peninsula south of Christchurch, which was way better, but I didn't take any photos (yeah, I know!). Sumner is a sweet little place, with a cool pizzeria called the Ruptured Duck. The Red fish Blue fish store was my favourite with very random, strange, and peculiar gifts of all sorts... Johnny finally got released from the hospital last Monday, so the following day he and Becky went on their way to Australia for a few days to connect to their flight back home to Halifax. It was so great to spend time with them both. Becky and Johnny, I love you, and I'm going to come back to Halifax and cuddle with your dogs and pray that you don't have any wet noodles. Kaikoura was the next stop for Beth and I. We had a lovely, long chat on the drive up. Thanks for that, Beth. There's a trail at the end of the peninsula near Kaikoura. It's fantastic. Besides the stunning landscape of ocean and cliffs, there were seal colonies all along the rocks. At the other end of the trail is a fancy looking bridge connecting the trail to the parking lot. My friend Craig (from Nelson of "Hazel & Craig"), was the engineer for that project. Beauty bridge, Craig! Besides seals and birds, we saw sheep. Yep, sheep on the beach. Never seen that one before. He's quite camouflaged. Big, thick, tough sea weed. So different from the bull kelp on the west coast of BC. The next day, we drove north once more and spotted this beautiful luxury resort all made of tree houses! My brother Dave will love this! He writes all about tree houses on his website. I have a link to it on the side menu of this blog side (click on "Treehouse By Design"). So, here I find myself hungry and thirsty and have spent over $16.oo on internet time to update this blog. Yeeouch. But it's worth it! Beth and I are taking different paths from hereon in. She's taking the car to do the rest of the east coast of the south island, and I am taking the bus up to Takaka to go to a yoga retreat! I'll be out of touch until February 25th, and when I come out, I hope to be all relaxed and flexible. Maybe I should take a before and after photo of myself.... We'll see.