Arrival in NZ

We flew into ChristChurch, picked up our car and drove out along a flat flat road towards out destination. Where other airports were surrounded by car sales places, ChristChurch airport has tractor sales and saddlery shops! and the sheep graze almost up to the runway. This is one of the nice things about it, it is a proper growing place and as we discovered once we had been shown round the lovely farm where Graham and Sharon Peck now live, there is nothing which is not producing a crop from the grass, the sheep eat the grass, they get shorn for their wool and also bad luck on them, they get eaten! The deer eat the grass and their antlers are shorn for velvet which feeds mostly the Chinese and Japanese, and they are also then eaten, mostly by the Germans who like a bit of venison at the right time of year. We immediately felt at home as in home like Britain, the landscape although flat sports English oaks and other trees, there are sparrows and little birds as well as a lot of black and white magpies but there is less of the semi tropical vegetation, just enough to be interesting. Sharon's garden had phlox and wonderfully healthy roses amongst other more exotic things and I am ashamed to say that I trod on a baby hedgehog, I think it was dead before my little foot came crashing down on it. We had a good catch up with Graham and Sharon and were spoiled with every sort of delicious thing and with their time as well. We saw Jilly and Carl and their baby Ella and also poor Rowan who had dislocated his arm in a kayaking adventure. As they had a wedding to organise and also Rowan's arm to mend, we were incredibly grateful for all the trouble they took to look after us. Graham showed us round the farm which we loved, we saw where the sheep were shorn, where the deer were de antlered, and we felt great admiration for those two managing great big strong pushy deer in a shed with a lot of doors. However, if you should ever be a deer, what they do is to get you into the shed and then suddenly the left hand wall speeds across and traps your head so you can get your antlers shorn off. Best of all, despite the weather, they took us to Lake Tekapo which is a most beautiful turquoise blue and as we went over the hill, as promised, the sun came out and we went from one weather system to the next. They have a jet boat which is a speedy little number which skimmed across the lake when Graham drove it, but when he kindly asked Richard if he would like a go, as Richard's eyes lit up and he turned the ignition, the boat refused to go. We had a very adventurous return with Richard playing the part of Captain Bligh and I think I was Fletcher Christian. We paddled back across the vast expanse of turquoise blue water until we reached the side. Sharon ran back to get the car, I bravely walked along the edge in my clothes holding onto the rope until almost on cue I fell over a rock, splosh. Richard left the boat and almost miraculously Graham turned the key and the motor fired up again. What we should have done was put Jonah out in the middle of the lake! Anyway, great fun and thank you the Peck family for a really sploshing time! We'll be back