Lake Tekapo To Christchurch

<< Omarama To Lake Tekapo           Christchurch City Center >>

"THE ROAD TRIP"

FJORDLAND & SOUTHERN PACIFIC EXPERIENCE

Scene Location :
* Lake Tekapo
* Burke Pass
* Kimbell
* Fairlie
* Geraldine i-Site
* Mount Somers
* Staveley
* Methven i-Site
* Windwhistle
* Glentunnel
* Darfield
* Kirwee
* West Milton
* Christchurch
* Lyttelton
* Christchurch

Total Distance :
* 471km
* Fuel - NZD30

Setting :
* Day - Misty

Character :
* Driver : Biqque & Shahrul
* Map Reader & Photographer : Shahrul & Biqque
* Extra : Geng bas sekolah lembu, Lori balak, Lori sampah, serta pokok-pokok cantek

~Page Seven~
Lake Tekapo To Christchurch : When We Tasted The Best Salmon

“Take one photo of me, please...rasa macam perompak plak arini...” I asked hubby while he was lip balm-ing. 

“Look at the sandflies…gile banyak.” RIP sandflies.

We drove out from the park and refuel at Challenge, which was a bit cheaper than others.  From Lake Tekapo, we passed by one stretch that was covered with mist, almost quarter part of it. It was Burke Pass.

“Wow…mist! Nice huh…”

Slowly, we approached the fog and felt the chillness. We had to turn on the lights, to alert the coming vehicles from the opposite side. For few hundred of meters, we were driving in the mist and started to have a mix feeling.

“Ok…this is not nice…don’t tell me it will be misty ALL THE WAY LONG TO CHRISTCHURCH! Tak cantik la gambar!”

The misty sight continued until Kimbell and Fairlie. We stopped for photo capturing at one spot where they had a big round stone with compass direction on it. On the road, we saw a convoy of classic cars, and a big fat cow struggling to get on top of the hill, on the other part of view. 

We then headed to Geraldine and followed the stretch of Inland Scenic Route. We stopped at the i-Site to grab fridge magnets and window shopping at some of the souvenir shops. 

Moving towards Mayfield, again we saw friends of Shaun the Sheep and we didn’t blow the chance to capture more and more pictures of them. And this time, they were in alert state but they didn’t run away…at least. Hahaha! COMEL GILE!

We tried to ignore ANY shorter directions, where instead of taking Rakaia to Ashburton, we chose Methven to Mount Somers.

“Ashburton? Tanakkkkkkkkk! Tanak balikkkkkkk!” We repeatedly shouted this, whenever we saw a direction pointing to the shortcuts.

Towards Mount Somers, we saw couple of locals on horseback riding and…

“EH, WHAT’S THAT???”

“SHEEP MASTERING???”

“But…there are in black and white la…”

It was cow mastering. Damn! Bertuah sungguh si John tu dapat jumpa kan! (Just got to know that Chawana also got lucky to have this opportunity.)

Along the way, we saw Mount Somers on the left, but we had to go to Methven and skipped the de tour. We had to overtake two trucks loaded with logs, memandangkan lori-lori tu dah terhoyong-hayang. Scary ok!

We passed by Staveley, and later stopped at the Methven i-Site but failed to get any fridge magnet here. So we settled with lunch that we cooked earlier at the holiday park. We ate two packs of spaghetti before we headed to Ashburton Gorge.

Here at the Ashburton Gorge, we saw one super extraordinary view of river and cliff. I wasn’t sure whether it was Rangitata River or Rakaian River. Anyway, regardless what river it was, the valley was really an eye-catching!

The journey continued to Windwhistle, Glantunnel and Darfield, before we stopped at Tussock Square, opposite the small old cabin of Darfield Jail. There were cherry trees all over the square, alongside colorful cute flowers around the jail.

(IKLAN : AT THIS TIME OF COMPOSING, I AM WATCHING ALL BLACKS VS THE PUMAS AT ASTRO! *Doing the haka dance along with them.* Hahaha!)

Ok, concerntrate Biqque!

At the jail door, there was an ad, asking for donation of two mannequins, to be put on displayed. I volunteered to be one, in a healthier villain pose.

“Oh…look, daffodils!” I assumed. Forgive my cacatness of recognizing flowers, if it isn’t ya :D

The wind blew quite mean, so we had to go back to the car and continue driving. I kind of upset with the sky that day, as it didn’t turn bright, clear and blue at all. We passed by Kirwee and West Milton, before we reached Christchurch.

Approaching Christchurch town, the sky still vague. We decided to check in first, before we carried on with any plan. Finding Amber Park wasn’t that complicated, for it is located on the Blenheim Road, that is parallel with Riccarton Road.
I parked the car and went into the office.

“We booked a powered site…but we thought of upgrading it into a cabin…is there any available cabin for today?”

“Hmm…there isn’t any regular cabin, but we do have suite cabins. Unfortunately, all of them are booked.”

I looked at hubby and asked for his decision. The officer then continued…

“We have studio…” “And how much is it?” “86 dollars.”

GULP! From a powered site that cost us NZD36, we had to add another NZD50 for a studio, that has toilet and kitchen attached, tv, sofa and 4 beds. Argh!

“Ok, we take it.” No choice!

The guy then escorted us to the room and while walking, he asked what happened to our campervan. Dush! Nothing happen la bro, these two crazy couple purposely try their luck to sleep in a mini mpv tapi tak jadi sebab sejuk gedi jer…pfftt!

The room was good, or shall I say, first-class, than what we had for the past 7 nights. Thanks to the in-room microwave, we ate another two packs of warm spaghetti with mix vege. 

"We have to find Omega Office to correct the list." Well, the car rental gave us the tyre chain, which we didn't ask for, and they put on the document that there is a roof bar, which there wasn't. We managed to correct it and proceed with the next plan.

Not to end the day, we drove out from the park and went to Lyttelton. Driving towards the town, we finally saw right in front of our eyes, the aftereffect of earthquake that Christchurch had, few months back.

“Can’t wait to see the city center…” “Kita tengok esok camne…’

We headed to Governor’s Bay, passed by one tunnel, and stopped at the hillside. Down the hill, we saw harbor/wharf/port, whatever you called it. There was one cute rubbish collector truck that has “I love rubbish” quote on it. Cool huh…

“Want to try the best salmon? It should be somewhere around here…” Hubby suggested.

We drove down the wharf and saw one small restaurant that we suspected to be the one that we were looking for. Undeniably, we found the right one, once we saw lots of paper cutting of Chef Llyod Millar. The restaurant was once, built with bricks, but now, it’s fully built with wood.

Looking at the menu that offered no porks, of course, we ordered one Foll Baked Salmon with Thai sauce. We can’t figure out how would it tasted and not to disappointing the chef, we chose to pack it.

With luscious smell at the back seat, we hold our hungriness and went to Westfield for a window shopping. We aimed few shops and decided to come back tomorrow, to grab some special items, mainly on Rugby World Cup merchandise. Hehe!

Back in the studio, we quickly opened the mouth-watering salmon and HELL YEAH, IT WAS CRAZY DELICIOUS! YANG MAHAL TU LA YANG SEDAP KAN…