Where’s my Hat?

The Weedon NZCMA Camp is an excellent place to explore South Christchurch and Banks Peninsula. Monday was a trip to the Antarctica Centre near the Airport. Well worth a visit with many different displays. There are some Little Blue Penguins in an area complete with pool etc. We were there for feeding and an informative talk on their makeup and lives.

Here’s Judy waiting for the blizzard. It’s -9 degrees celcius and when the wind comes the cold gets almost unbearable. There is an emergency button there to switch it off and my eyes were on it, but harden up came to mind. Thank goodness for the jackets. Kept my top warm but my uncovered legs suffered. One of the videos we watched was in 4D complete with cold water sprays at pertinent times. Most interesting, especially when the Leopard Seal came at you and spat in your face. We could have spent.more time here but our minds had taken in enough. So we headed off to explore New Brighton. Sea Side Christchurch.

New Brighton Beach looking north to the Pier

Looking south to Banks Peninsula. Time for a long walk in the surf. An incredible day.

Today Tuesday 29th Jan it was a trip to The Port of Lyttleton and a ferry trip across to Diamond Harbour. We were early by about 20 minutes so waited patiently with the others for the ferry to depart. The time came to depart and no one had moved. Stood up to see our ferry heading off to Diamond Harbour. The people we were with had another destination in mind. Oh well time to head off for a coffee.

An hour later and we were on the ferry. No waiting this time. Flashed the gold card and a ten minute trip across the harbour, and we were in Diamond Harbour.

A couple of interesting sculptures.

The lady is on the other side.

A good walk up the hill and a nice little restuarant/cafe. Time for lunch. We sat out on the balcony and did the usual thing. Checked our emails, face book, etc while we waited for the food to arrive. Time to leave and where’s my hat? No one knew, and a search round where we were sitting and a check of our knapsack bought no hat. As we were leaving there it was on a barrel by the door. I remember taking it off as I came inside. Never wear your hat inside. It must have dropped when I was going through the distress of spending money and someone picked it up.

A short walk round the hills and back to the ferry. Back to Lyttleton and over the overpass to the car. As I was going up a gust of wind took off my precious hat and threw it over the side to where huge logging trucks were tearing past with logs to one of the ships. What now? An important looking individual came along and I explained the problem to him. He suggested that we stop the trucks and send a car to pick it up. I really didn’t think my hat was worth that much but he said he could do something and so a big logging grabber machine came along. The driver climbed down the ladder from his cab, picked up my hat and passed it over the fence to me. You’ve got to love these South Islanders. Nothing is too much trouble. I kept that hat tightly clasped in my hand until I could deposit it on the back seat of the car.

The wayward hat that nearly bought the Port of Lyttleton to a stand still.