Make them eat cake

It's apparently already been a week since Dad's post but as time at 16 Armagh Street is measured on the home baking calendar I can only confirm that it's been a lemon drizzle cake, a slab of raisin cake, a box of butter flapjack, several roast dinners, more bottles of wine than I can count and a Christmas cake (?!) since the last post. While we have both been lapping up the comforts of home (stocked refrigerator!, working plumbing!), we have also been steeling ourselves for our looming return to New York. Unfortunately while the great weather we've enjoyed throughout the trip has followed us across the Tasman as a beautiful early Spring that has meant spending a fair bit of our time deepening our hatred of Macs as we trawl the internet for jobs, apartments and cheap u-haul rentals.

On the days we have changed out of our pjs we have enjoyed exploring the spectacular scenery around Christchurch. The city itself is the biggest in the South Island and sprawls across the pancake flat Canterbury plain - bordered by the Port Hills to the South and an endless stretch of curved beach to the West.

The first time cabin fever forced us out of the house we drove the route of my favourite cycling route up through the Port Hills and all the way to the town of Akaroa. This (comparatively) old settlement is a former French colony and its history is still visible in the architecture and street names of the town center. The real highlight of the trip though is the drive itself - these are just a few of the views:

Littleton Harbour

A cow

Akaroa (4 seasons in 1 day was written about this country)

Our next trip was a carefully negotiated double header - if I agreed to entrust my life to a horse of guaranteed docility for two hours Megan would accompany me for an afternoon mountain bike around the beautiful Bottle Lake Forest Park. Although neither of us will admit it both trips had their charms but the scenery again stole the show:

No pedals

Mum Leese and Megan looking the part

When you turn on a PC in New Zealand this is what you see

Wow

No hay required

We emerged next for a quick jaunt out to the house of some friends of my parents who have redefined "work-life balance" by retiring (or semi-retiring) from legal careers in the US to pursue farming and beekeeping in rural Canterbury! After a delicious lunch we were walking around their fields when our host announced that we were just in time to witness the birth of their first ever baby goats!
"You're kidding!" I said,
"No she's kidding!" she replied:



For our most recent expedition we drove up to Hanmer Springs, finally making it into the foothills of the snowcapped mountains which have seemed to float above the Northern horizon since our arrival. The town markets itself as the South Island's Alpine village but I don't know anywhere in France where you can soak off a hard morning's mountain bike crashing in a 41 degree thermal hot tub: