One night in Christchurch, New Zealand...

We spent two nights in wonderful Kaikoura.

We woke up the day of departure and had a leisurely breakfast at a cafe. On our way out of town we did two more things:

--A stop at the beach:

The beach was made up of perfectly smooth dark rock, easy to walk barefoot on. The darkness of the rocks made them hold the heat from the sun so the breeze was cool and the beach warm and toasty. It was a perfect day! The boys enjoyed throwing rocks into the sea. And, yes, the color of the water is that turquoise:

--A stop at Lavendyll Lavender Farm (yes, he's taller than I am) :

Beautiful! The pictures don't do the colors justice!:

The farm was so maintained and gorgeous:

There were a million bees loving on the lavender, so many you could hear a loud hum. John was nervous to walk out there but conquered his fear:

Then we hopped in the car for the 2.5 hours drive back to Christchurch. We turned our car in and took a walk around the Cathedral square. Here is the Anglican cathedral:

It was built in 1864, completed in 1904, of Canterbury stone and native timber. It stands as a major landmark in Christchurch and is the focal of the square.

We also walked to the Arts Center, located in the old buildings that were the University of Canterbury:

There were neat little cafes here and the insides of the buildings were fun to see. There was also this free form sculpture hanging out:

Then we made our way to our hotel. Traveling with a family of 5 is tricky because you need to book two hotel rooms. I found a place where we could all pile into one room. It used to be the jail! It's called the Jailhouse Accommodation :

We made it to our rooms and were exhausted. I pulled down my sheet only to find this:

We quickly checked out of the hotel and into a Best Western for the night. I don't know if that was an official bed bug, but I knew we weren't sticking around to find out! Good thing I always check before we get settled! Traveling is always an adventure!

Up next: Choo choo!