Season 2, Ep. 07

The One With Kaikoura

Previously on The Moo Point...

The South Island, Nelson, Golden Bay, hipster coffee houses and The Revenant. 

You with me? Excellent.
We said bye-bye to Nelson in order to drive down to Canterbury with a small stop over in Kaikoura. Kaikoura is a small town between Picton and Christchurch and it is famous for its fresh fish and seafood to locals. Me being from Europe, New Zealand is awesome when it comes to its fresh seafood over all, but locals are bound to get pickier and Kaikoura tops the list I guess. And boy is it true. I am a little fussy personally with fish, I have a strong feeling it ain't just me, but yeah, if the fish ain't fresh, nah, sorry, just get me more fries. 

Unfortunately the weather had started to get sad. And it kept getting sadder and sadder until it started raining and not only that it kept getting colder and colder believe it or not, until we went to an Irish pub, beautiful one, make sure you check it out, it's called The Strawberry Tree, wow that is a huge parenthesis I am making in order to get to my point, anyway the pub had a fire on. Yes. It was beautiful, beautiful scenery I tell you but hello, middle of summer here. Hashtag global warming.

Next day we couldn't wait to get back on the road and get out of the motel we stayed in and make our move down to Christchurch. The motel was called Dusky Lodge and Backpackers,and even though it had amazing facilities, spa, pool, kitchen, internet, pool table and a TV in the room,however my oh my, that toilet in our room smelled like a cow's fart. Hashtag it was moo. So yeah, outta there.

The trip to Christchurch was smooth, with a couple of small stops, one at Cheviot town where I HAD THE BEST LATTE EVER ALRIGHT, I mean for a small town they sure have a couple of super cute, modern coffee houses, so if you're driving down there stop at Cheviot. I repeat, stop over at Cheviot town. Ta. Later we stopped quickly at Waipara Hills, a very flash winery. Like, very flash. We had our coffee watching a bunch of men taking down a massive stage where UB40 had just performed on the night before there, Waipara Hills is a famous venue for concerts etc. Hashtag red red wine. It was still a little rainy but at least we weren't roasting in the car. Arriving in Canterbury, our first stopover was at Lincoln University in Lincoln. Why? That was the university my better half attended, thanks for asking. I had a good nosy around the campus and after we discussed what had changed we made a move to Lincoln town which reportedly did not use to look like the way it does now. Some locals claimed "we're important now, we have our massive chain supermarket and heaps of flash new cafes, library and brewery-pub". Overall, a very nice upgrade then. 

We arrived in Riccarton in Christchurch around 4pm and checked into our room. It was such a wonderful, tidy, clean room, with heaps of facilities including a mini kitchen. Hashtag bargain. If you're interested, check out Academy Motor Lodge. Best stay that far. For the rest of our day we drove to Westfield, yes we have a Westfield too, and had dinner locally. We had a long day awaiting the day after.

The weather was still pretty crappy but hey, can't win them all. The next morning we took off to Akaroa in the Banks Peninsula. A super cute former French colony, therefore it has kept all its French names, even the streets are named in French. "Rue Oxford" par example. Cute. Akaroa is surrounded by the beautiful Lake Forsyth and once again you'll have a chance to explore heaps of shops, coffee shops and restaurants. If you feel adventurous and up for a splurge, you can have the opportunity to pay for a trip to swim with dolphins, IF you're lucky to spot any that is. Up to you. 
Right, so I shall leave you with the above information for now to digest for a week and get back to you asap. 

Next on The Moo Point: Christchurch and the way back on the North Island  that marks the end of the road trip. Look after yourselves!

Katerina

Making friends in Kaikoura

Waipara Hills

Akaroa

Lake Forsyth/Akaroa

Season 2, Ep 06

The One With The South Island.

And here I thought things can't get any more "down under". Worldly this title belongs to Australia, but then there's us, right here, a little further down. I have been residing on the North Island of New Zealand and right now I do realise I owe you an episode on this, since I have visited a few locations up here too, but this one is all about the South Island. My latest trip. 

First, a smooth trip down to Wellington to catch the ferry and a few hours later we had arrived in Picton. Funny how Picton belongs on the South Island yet if you look at the map you'll see that it is higher than Wellington. Hashtag LOL. Anyways, Picton's main town, where all the cute cafes and shops are, looks so much like Monte Carlo. I know random, but just looking out at the harbour, with a bunch of palm trees all around that's the image I got. Very cute indeed. Make sure you check out "The Paper Rain Project", a cute shop that sells from artwork to T-shirts all uniquely made using mostly leather and wood materials.

We started our journey by driving to Nelson which was our first stopover. The journey there was pretty, very very green, we made a tiny stop at a river, which name slips my mind, and people where swimming, oh it just looked so picturesque. Yeah, I know, I suck for not remembering the name, but if you're driving from Picton to Nelson, you cannot miss it.

Nelson, is a small city, but beautiful. Just the right size. Heaps of cafes, cool restaurants to check out, most notably 'The Affair' which topped my list after I had that lamb salad. MM. Activities in Nelson would include, cycling, walking and coffees coffees coffees. It's a pretty relaxed city, one night we actually decided to go see 'The Revenant'. But it's what's around Nelson that's worth driving to and seeing. We spent a whole day driving to Golden Bay in the hopes of making it to the beach but the wind was unbelievable. However, it was the drive there that made our day. We stopped at two little towns on our way, Motueka and Takaka, both so lovely, so scenic, beautiful cafes, local shops, packed with tourists obviously at this time of the year. Footnote, it is summer here, remember? So yeah, Motueka, Takaka, remember those two little Maori named places. Worth it.

Next week, Kaikoura. Our second stopover before the big city of Christchurch. MWAH

On the ferry...entering the South Island

Picton

By the river...

The river on the way to Nelson

Nelson Park

Season 2, Ep. 03

"X"

Ed Sheeran live you say? I say hooray. A simple but genius idea for a mother's day gift that spiralled into one of the finest weekends 'away'. Clearly by mother's day you understand we booked in May. And the concert was 3 days ago. Hashtag girl's gotta be prepared.

Ed. Boy do I love Ed's music. From day 1. I remember when I was under the impression that Rupert Grint, aka Ronald Weasly from Harry Potter had released a single when 'Lego House' came out. Lol. And then I became a fan. So when we heard that this little ginger genius is coming to New Zealand we couldn't resist. 

It was an all girls trip to one of the busiest and most visited cities of New Zealand. And my first time in Auckland. Auckland looks like a combination of 3 known big cities in my humble opinion. Athens, New York and Sydney. Have not visited Sydney yet but I will take up on my girlfriends' opinion about that. The main street, the harbour, the houses, the cafes and the super well dressed Aucklanders, it all left me with an excellent first impression. The weather very much helped, nice and warm, a sweet taste of pure summer. 

And now to the concert. First of all, a big thank you to the city for being so organised about this. Almost 100 free coach rides were available to take us to the venue and back once it was all finished. I mean, wow. Definitely saved us crowded, cramped queues to trains and standing still for an hour until we finally caught one. No. It was a smooth operation. 

When we arrived and sorted ourselves out regarding seats, drinks, quick toilet visit etc, we walked in half way through Passenger's performance as one of the two opening supporting acts. He was beautiful,just what you need when you first arrive at a concert, a calm solo acoustic musician to set the mood and sets us all in the right mind frame for the big Ed moment. Unfortunately as good as he was, I only know 'Let Her Go', which I bashed out singing along when he sang it with everyone else. Soon after he was done, Rudimental took on the stage and boy did they bring it all up a notch. Suddenly we're all in party mood, with their cheerful and catchy tunes, and here I am admitting that I had no idea I know so many songs of theirs. Yeah, I suck like that, I know songs but I never bother figuring out who they are by or titles etc. Anyway, Rudimental featured 4 main vocalists and they were all fab. Funny downside: half way through their set, the stadium had a massive power cut and everything went to silence! We waited until everything restarted and rebooted as fast as they could, but despite the blatant technical difficulty, no-one's mood was ruined or annoyed or whatever. Hashtag not the end of the world, hashtag don't want our money back.

Ed. As cheesy as he is, he is so the right kind of cheesy. First we got to see a footage of his steps in music, and how much he literally struggled to get to this point of singing live in front of 200k people audiences. And then he walked on stage. The first thing we all noticed is his All Blacks jersey. Cute and respectful. He starts singing, OH and by the way, his entire set was JUST him and his collection of guitars. He supported the entire show on his own, no other form of instrument support, no band, just a couple of backing singers, invisible to the naked eye-lol. But the graphics behind him made such a massive impact on the whole thing. Props to the graphic designers. Anyway, I'm losing my trail of thought, as soon as he finished his first song, he turned around to switch guitars and that's when everyone's hearts in the crowd melted. Not only was he wearing an All Blacks jersey but he was wearing no 11, aka Jonah Lomu's jersey. Hashtag footnote: for my non-Kiwi mates, Lomu was a rugby veteran, who changed the course of rugby as we know it as the youngest All Black in history and with a record of scores and tries. Sadly he passed away about a month ago at age 40 from kidney disease. Sadly. So yeah, Ed paid his massive respect and boy did every Kiwi appreciate this. He was on the news and everything. Bless.

This was Ed's final performance after 2.5 years of touring and boy did he follow up his promise to sing his heart out even if he ended up losing his voice the next morning. The entire stadium was lit up to everyone's phone torches and it looked magical. Funny how back in the day people used lighters ae. Torches are prettier. Favourite moment. 'Thinking Out Loud'. Of course. I was waiting for the chick from the video to pop on stage and do their little contemporary dance but I settled to just watching the video being played in the background. Pf, okay.

All in all, a fab experience, with fab people, fab weather and a fab concert. Thank you Ed. Thank you for being successful. Hashtag thinking out loud.

"I see fire"