Blue Lagoon Traveler

Sunday, March 17 through Sunday, March 17 Wait. What? It's time to say a final goodbye to tour friends and get back to real life. Time for the longest Sunday we've ever lived. Which started around 7 a.m. NZ time. After some final hugs with tour friends in the breakfast room, Mary and I joined Colin and Lulu in a van to the airport. Hotel departure time, Christchurch, New Zealand: 9:30 a.m. Sunday Actual time in the Eastern US: 4:30 pm Saturday  Yessiree, we were about to travel back in time. The duty free shop was tempting me to buy some unnecessary liquor. No thanks, Johnny! I'm on a mission for manuka honey and something cool from the All Blacks.  On my first flight from Christchurch back to Auckland, my window seat on the left side of the plane opened up different landscapes that I'd missed on our flight south. One more braided river. It's a perfect view to show how appropriate the name is. This nutritious snack will definitel...

Christchurch, New Zealand The South Island  Friday evening, March 15  & Saturday, March 16 After arriving in Christchurch by scenic train and checking into our last of the tour hotels, Mary and Meghan and I set out to find a good pub, and immediate stumbled across The Church brewery inhabiting an obviously legit church building. It seemed appropriate for dinner in Christchurch. Couldn't resist including this great photobomb. This is a nicer one of Mary but we thought the photo looked fake, like she was in front of green screen. The Church really looked like this. Rugby was on the big screen and the place was hopping. Jesus was even helping out at the bar. Jennie and Lynne wandered in later and joined us at The Church. Saturday For the last day of our New Zealand tour, we followed Colin on a walking tour of downtown Christchurch.  Christchurch was hit by more than one devastating earthquake (Septe...