The Road to Christchurch

Next morning, all barr Merris, hopped-on Taxi's bus to the chorus of "Oh look its the naked bus"! We should have offered to do the whole show again but hey they probably wouldn't have been so very keen!. A stop at Lake Pukaki gave an excellent view of Mount Cook and an opportunity for some surf-posing on the easy rocks and a good balancing act on the slightly less stable ones out in the lake!

On the edge of the lake was one of the oldest churches in New Zealand...and I have to say it did look surprisingly old considering how recently New Zealand was discovered. Come Rakaia it was time for yet more fond farewells to more of the gang.

The rest of the journey involved Welsh-style traffic jams and an interesting excerpt from Taxi about the piles of rocks in the fields. Apparently rock-growing is becoming a necessary element within the building industry with farmers turning to rock-growing in favour of more traditional crops. Generally grown in piles in grassy fields, a good greystone rock of building quality takes around 3 to 5 years to mature, whilst special requirements for large door lintels or ornamental stones may take anything up to 15 years reach the correct size and weight. As we drove past fields you could quite clearly see there was a healthy rock-industry in the making with significant piles of rocks dotted around the countryside. Hard to believe that people sometimes sleep through such insights as these. Their loss I guess!

That night en-route to the supermarket Leni and I came across some rather strange "Viking" women, parading themselves about the square and doing some crazy, somewhat altered form of gymnastics, theatre, fire-twirling and growling. Good, if slightly mind-altering, family entertainment. Chicken salad and pasta made the evening, as did lazing about infront of the TV.