New Zealand Trip Report Day 17: Akaroa Day 18: Flight to Auckland and onward

Day 17, March 6, 2017, Monday:

Akaroa day trip:

We started off on our drive to Akaroa around 9am, quite late by our usual standards. We had run out of milk, yogurt, fruits etc but decided to pick up those at Akaroa instead of stopping somewhere at Christchurch. A lot of roadwork was being done in Christchurch with many streets being one way and we found it difficult to navigate with offline maps.

Needless to say the drive was scenic... it had its share of switchbacks of course...

This is the map of our drive

https://goo.gl/maps/1CA1Ep7qtxNtkxz99

We picked up stuff at the Foursquare supermarket... prices of course marked up. 

We had read that we can go up the light house for a small fee but when we arrived, it was locked.

 It was a pretty good view from there...

 We saw some heritage houses and a memorial garden.

We visited 2 churches... St Peter's and St Patrick's. Both are located in scenic spots and have lovely stained glass inside.

GIANT'S HOUSE:

We had our lunch and then drove to the Giant's house... art everywhere in this garden... you step on tiled mosaic art on the ground, the banisters and steps are all again mosaic ceramic art...crowned with quirky statues again with mosaics.

 Each niche is color coordinated... the house has pink overtones with flowers echoing the same spectrum

The ship theme of course has a blue color of water...

Adam and Eve have water melon slice hats and the forbidden apple in hand with the serpent slithering between them...

The quirky statues, fountains are awesome... we can sit on this art... so surprising we have this much access.

The penguin couple have a cat at their feet in this idyllic world where everyone gets along...our interpretation of course for this quirky group...

Unity theme again with Mr Dog and Miss Cat ...


Flower petal themed seats...

 There are fruit laden trees, creepers heavy with tomatoes.

Fruit laden trees here... apples, pears, lemons...

 This kitchen garden niche has some garden implements rising from the roof... tomatoes

 There is topiary everywhere right from the entrance Santa's reindeer... there are giraffes, a peacock etc etc as terrific topiaries (creepers shaped to grow as figures).

Here's a peacock... looks perfect in real... picture has not done any justice...


Santa's reindeer here at the entrance...



The topiary is not just geometric shapes but lovely birds in the border here...

Here is a giraffe topiary





 Colorful acrobats form the arches and borders transitioning from one level to another...

 Napoleon's hat flowers echo the same color as the seat...

Since the whole garden is on a slope, there were views to the water too. As we go up the garden, lovely scenery unfolds

Each niche was beautiful and each tiny detail was aesthetically crafted.

Here's the Music niche...

 Even the mundane drinking water fountain is in a flower...

A mundane table is a pretty ballerina here...

This is the lady who has created all the art... horticulture and art meshed seamlessly to create poetry in this garden...

We totally loved our time here. The washroom was also a creation of the same art... just as the one in the Paradise lodge garden we had seen on the way to Glenorchy from Queenstown.

It would be great to stay as a guest in this house … on a return visit we'll definitely consider that as rooms are rented out for stay! Next morning, we returned our car, caught our flight to Auckland and from there flew back home.

Very grateful that we got to see the BEST of New Zealand! I'll add video links soon!

I'm starting on our Patagonian adventures in AWESOME ARGENTINA in the next post:

http://adventuretrav.blogspot.com/2017/05/how-to-plan-trip-to-argentina-day-1.html