Goodbye Grandad

Last week my Granddad passed away

 

Ian Gordon Hamilton
 

On the lighter side, the cat who lives in the house next door to the funeral home decided to come in and smooch everyone during the ceremony

The lady in front of me nearly sat on it as it jumped up on her chair for me to pat it during a hymn

 

 

South Island Adventures

I can now officially say that I've been to the South Island

I saw the seals at Kaikoura

They didn't smell

The one on the wall in the background had a nasty temper and showed me his teeth 

The one on the grass could have let me touch him, I didn't want to risk it.... 

The public toilets were so clean at Kaikoura you could have had a picnic in the cubicle

Northland/Auckland - you need to step up your game!

We went to Hamner Springs Thermal Resort

It was so clean and new, it made Waiwera look like a dump - and it was way cheaper

On Sunday we drove around Christchurch looking at the damage, I felt bad waking around taking photos. Then I counted the tourists doing the same thing

This road was packed with cars that had pulled over to take pics of the houses perched on the edge of the cliff

This road used to be flat

This bridge used to be straight

There are lots of these signs in the Red Zone

This is how they hold up the walls in Lyttleton

...and so for all who are curious, no I didn't feel any aftershocks

There's always next time when I go down again to tackle Mt Hutt, which opened today!!

Waa-hoo!!

Christchurch Here I Come!

This weekend I'm going to Christchurch...

That is provided the flight isn't cancelled due to the ash cloud from Chile

Then I need to get home again

I'm excited to be going down, not at all looking forward to an aftershock in the middle of the night...

I can see it now, sleeping, in the hotel, the shake starts rumbling, I start screaming and running for the door

At least I don't sleep naked

To be honest I'm just looking forward to using the new carry-on suitcase I got for my birthday

I would upload a photo but it wount flip around the right way...

Its purple and thats all it takes to be cool

I would take it everywhere, but people would feel uncomfortable in my awesomeness

This is the kind of thing that is frequently seen in Christchurch

My heart goes out to them

I wanna see the glacier

I want to see the seals

People say they stink really bad and you can only go near the beach if you hold your nose firmly shut

If you've ever been in the car with my dad and he's locked the windows you'll know thats its gonna be a piece of cake compared to that

Jeremy will be taking me to the thermal area, I can't remember what its called but I've been instructed to take my swimwear.

I hope its not near the seals

I shall let you know how it goes next week