Blog

No planes today, but we did ride on a train and take a van to Blenheim and the hotel in Christchurch, so I guess 2 out of 3 ain’t bad.

We were scheduled to leave the Vinter’s Retreat at 1245 to catch the 1405 train, but a) it is Friday, 2) check out time is 1000, and c) we haven’t explored Blenheim. So we ask the car company to pick us up at 1000 so the hotel can clean and get ready for their next guests. The car company is agreeable and our van picks us up at our villa at 1000. Our driver took us to the I site to store our bags while we wandered around Blenheim (pronounced BLENem).

Dotty and I took off towards downtown, Jim took off to find coffee, and Gammy sat and smelled the cork tree. Just kidding, Mommy sat in the sunshine reading the map she had finally procured from the Information Site… and it was free!!!!

On the way into town, there are trail markers for the sidewalk. These info signs, at your feet, give you information on the town of Blenheim.

Dotty and I found a couple of stores to shop, a coffee to drink… Oh and before I forget, there are so many gluten free options of muffins, breads, cakes, cookies, etc.., and a park. The park had a beautiful gardens and a memorial to fallen soldiers.

Dotty and I walked back towards the train station and passed an elementary school. Did anyone ever have their children sell their art projects in school? You know you could purchase key chains, or aprons, magnets, etc? The (and no I didn’t get pictures) grade 6 students’ artwork was published on ceramic tiles and placed as murals on the building. It was pretty spectacular. Jim walked around the school (we still hadn’t met up yet), and the kids’ backpacks were all hung up on pegs outside their classroom.

There was a small town winery very close to the train station, or so the directions said. I split from Dotty and headed for The Astrolabe. Here I am thinking the Astrolabe is going to be this very artsy fartsy building. Maybe even a 3D Astrolabe building.

Jim finished up his walk and joined me for a glass of wine before meeting up with Dotty and Mommy at the train station. The Blenheim Railway Station was built in 1906. The building is now a restaurant. We were warned that if we had to many bags to check in, we would be charged $35 dollars a piece, so we were waiting patiently with our 150,000 bags carrying 7,000 bottles of wine and crisps. Can’t call them chips, because they wouldn’t be hot and they only sell hot chips down here! 🤣

Okay, so no worries. The luggage guy took all our luggage, tagged them for Christchurch, and threw it on a train. Good thing we had taken extra precaution and wrapped our wine bottles with sweatshirts, pants, tights, shirts, panties, etc… (All bottles made it through to our hotel with no breakage.) We ventured to our car, found our seats, stowed our hand baggage (12 bags of food products) and sat down. We were on the wrong side of the train, but there were so many tours that had somehow gotten all the good seats. You don’t get to pick your seats when you make the reservations and it is suggested you call 24 hours in advance to reconfirm your reservation, which the train people laugh at you for calling. You can request seats, but you are not guaranteed to get any seat. They just assign them and give you a paper boarding pass.

We arrived in Christchurch around 7:30. Our driver was a cute little old man originally from Lake Como, Italy. We checked into our hotel and immediately went to find dinner.

Lucky for us the restaurants stay open past 8. As we were meandering back to the hotel, we noticed the restaurant, You Hannoi me. Well that solved dinner for Saturday night. Mommy popped in and made us reservations for 7, as Dotty and I were going to be in Akaroa all day and wouldn’t return until 6.

Back at the hotel, we separated to our rooms and although we had connecting doors, we left them locked.

#HowFortunateWeAre #MakeOwnSunshine #AdventuresOfALifetime