Circling Christchurch Saturday & Sunday 7/8 March

We woke to a lovely morning at Ealing – with not a cloud in the sky. We finally got away at about 10:30am, ande arrived in Christchurch around mid-day. We stopped at the dump station at Templeton, only to find it was backed up! We reported that to their 0800 number, and headed off to the one listed near the truck stop where Sawyers Arms Road crosses Johns Road. We never found the dump station, but decided to top up at the truck stop anyway. Except the pump I pulled up beside wasn’t working! So far, things weren’t going too well. We did a loop and came back to the pump that was working, and it wasn’t as diesel sodden as some of them are, and we got the fuel filled up – things were looking up. There was another public dump station listed at the council transfer station at Styx Road, so we headed for that, ever hopeful. Nev the Nav did a good job getting us there, and it was an impressive operation – the whole recycle/transfer station, and well set up to dump campervan waste water. Then we pointed Nev at Mackenzies Hotel and Backpackers in Pages Road. We set up in their back car park – they have an arrangement with the motorhome association. By the time we got there a nor-wester had kicked in, it was windy and warm at 28 degrees. We had time for late lunch and a shower, before heading off to Wyn’s neice’s 40th birthday party at her home. It was somewhere nearby – we just tell Nev where and he gets us there, more or less. He gave a few queer instructions this day – maybe the norwester was getting to him a bit 🙂

The wind dropped and it was al ovely evening for a party outside. The outdoor karioke must have been interesting for the neighbours. We had a go, albeit with the mikes turned off, at a Pete Sarstedt song “Where Do You Go To My Lovely”. We sounded OK we reckoned – maybe next time we’ll turn the mikes on…

Sunday dawned nice again – another sunny day. We had a walk along the street to Eastgate Mall at Linwood for some hot cross buns for breakfast.  We had a good cleanup inside Suzi – the housework doesn’t cease, but it does diminish in size.  After lunch we paid a visit to Supercheap for a new socket bar/arm thing. I’d managed to bend mine into a semi-circle trying to get the A-frame bracket off the car the day before. From there Nev guided us out to New Brighton beach, which was not as crowded as we might have expected. We had an icecream (the fast melting kind) and a walk out along the pier. There is a bit at the far end with signs reading “No fishing” which were mostly obscured by the people fishing. It is wierd being out beyond the breakers, watching the surfers from behind.

We went around to my cousins place not far away – somewhere. That’s one of the things with these navigation systems, after a while you don’t know where you are with much precision. We had a fabulous BBQ tea and catchup, and came away with a library of books for the winter.

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