February 21, 2019
We woke up to cloudy skies. We took our time checking out of the room since I did not have much planned for the day other than get to Christchurch (estimated 2 hours 20 minutes drive time) and then get ready to leave for home.
We stopped at the Caltex station to fill up on gas, and then we drove to a lookout on the Kaikoura Peninsula. Low clouds over the mountains blocked most of the view. We’ll have to come back there again in the future.
Then we drove to South Bay in hopes of seeing the dolphins again. Alas, they were not there. We drove back to the Kaikoura Peninsula to the Point Kean viewpoint. It was low tide, and we could see some fur seals lying on the rocks in the distance. The only good view of them was with binoculars. True to what the lady had told us at the I-site the day before, the seals were not very active. The viewpoint was better for looking at the mountains in the distance. At that time the clouds were beginning to clear and I was able to get some decent views. There was also a nice trail that went along the top of the peninsula and led to some great viewpoints of other bays. I walked it for a little way before turning around. Another hike to save for the future.
We left Kaikoura and headed south. Heinrich drove to Gore Bay, which is on a nice little detour road from SH 1. There we found a picnic table along the beach and had lunch. I walked along the beach for a little bit. The sand was dark brown with a lot of gravel, but it was a pretty spot with the Cathedral cliffs in the distance.
I took over driving and drove up the steep road from the beach to the Cathedrals, which resembled the badlands in their formations. There was a nice view of Gore Bay and the beach in the background. There was no trail to walk around the cliffs, so this was just a short stop for the view.
I drove further south to the outskirts of Christchurch, where we checked into our room at the 219 On Johns Holiday Park. We had a chalet cabin with a private bathroom and kitchenette, and air conditioning! It had turned into a nice warm sunny afternoon, so the air conditioning was much appreciated. The cabin had a second bedroom that we used as a packing area to get ready for the plane flights home.
We pulled everything out of the car and repacked the luggage as best as we could. We may have to shuffle items around after we get to the airport and weigh the luggage.
After packing we had some free time and decided to visit The Groynes park that was only a couple of kilometers from the cabin. It was a nice place to walk around. We viewed some ducks on a lake and a river with a weir. There was a swinging bridge over the lake outlet. This was a final goodbye to swinging bridges, one way bridges, and the New Zealand forest.
Afterwards we drove to the Z gas station for one last fill up. I paid part in cash and the rest by credit card to get rid of the remaining New Zealand money. Unfortunately after we left the gas station we discovered we did not get a good fill. We will need to visit a gas station one more time the next morning before turning in the car to top off the tank.
Back at the cabin we had ham and cheese sandwiches and salad for dinner, steamy puds and Whittier’s chocolate for dessert. We were hoping to finish off the remaining food items as much as possible to avoid having to throw things out.
I spent the evening uploading pictures to Facebook and writing blog posts.