Bottle Lake Biking

After 2.5 weeks of almost constant rain, it finally cleared up a little today. It was a crisp 8 degrees Celsius- but perfect for biking and we had the trails pretty much to ourselves. Bottle Lake Forest has an extensive network of mountain biking and walking trails, and it is also adjacent to the beach. The waves were huge today.

Riccarton Market

Riccarton Market is a quaint little Farmer's market in Riccarton Bush. We didn't get time to see the bushland cause Brad is in a golf tournament today- but it's really close by, so we'll be back!

Mona Vale

Mona Vale is an old homestead (one of the 1st in Christchurch) with big beautiful gardens and a nice little river running through. It's not as gorgeous now as it would be in the summer- since gardening season is pretty much at an end for the year. The rose garden would be wonderful if it was in full bloom (apparently the best time for roses is November-March).
There are supposedly trout in the rivers that run through Christchurch, but we have yet to see one. The water is clean, but really shallow.

Hanmer Springs

Today we went to Hanmer Springs. It is a thermal pool resort town with lots of biking and hiking trails too, just 1.5 hours from Christchurch. The thermal pools were nice- there are about 10 pools with varying temperatures. We went twice in one day (cause a multiple pass doesn't cost much more). In between hot springs visits, we did a 2 hour hike up to a 41 m high waterfall.

Lucretia Tarn

Lucretia Tarn

Below the treeline

This was a beautiful mountain tramp- my first one in the "real" mountains. There was a big difference in the vegetation and the ruggedness due to the height, and a very distinct treeline that you don't see closer to Christchurch. We camped pretty high up and it got pretty cold at night- but luckily I was fairly prepared!