Our Travel Stories

We started from Christchurch at 8.45am after a good breakfast at our Hotel. At breakfast, the hash browns were cooked very crispy and were really good.

We took a detour to Peel Forest Scenic Road and hiked the Big Tree walk to see the biggest tree in the forest- Kahikatea tree, 60 meters tall and that is about 1000 years old; just about when we got married 😊. The red wood from these Kahikatea trees were used for canoes by the native Maori people.

In this forest town, we visited a town church nestled at the foothills of the mountains. Mayuresh always loves visiting lonely churches and this one was beautiful.

Since we were in the farmlands, we saw sheep, cows and deer farms, and many farms growing cauliflower; may be one of the cash crop here. Funny thing is that whenever we tried to take pictures of sheep, many would pose and look at camera – looks like well trained for modeling 😊.

After the Big Tree walk, we visited Geraldine Cheese Factory in Geraldine town (duh), and bought their famous cheeses – brie, garlic gouda, Mt Peel Blue cheese and mozzarella cubes. We also enjoyed ice cream (2 scoops – one manuka honey & fig and other coffee). So no sugar diet went for a toss today!

Our next stop was at town Fairley. We bought 2 pies for our dinner from famous Bakery shop. We also bought locally grown apricots, peaches and cherries.

Then we visited Lake Tekapo and the famous Good Shepherd Church. These are very touristy spots and crowded places but still they are worth visiting. Lake Tekapo water was really clean and turquoise blue.

After this, we stopped to take pictures of Mount Cook at lake Pukaki and arrived in our hotel at 5.30pm.

Overall a very good day as we did what we like to do on our visits to countries – visit country side, visit local quaint worship places, eat locally grown seasonal fruits and also eat from famous eateries.

We did a quick grocery run for our stay, and planned hikes over the next couple of days. After some ~10 days of break, we will do proper hiking tomorrow.