Planes, trains, automobiles, and ferries

We're off for our first holiday away from home in three years tomorrow. Greg was given two free nights in a lake-front hotel in Queenstown along with flights and a rental car for being 10 years at his company, so we're basing our holiday around that. After that it's a night in Christchurch (staying with Greg's mother who has Alzheimer's so that'll be hard going) and an early start the next day to catch the wonderful Coastal Pacific to Picton. A ferry will then take us to Wellington because, sigh, Greg has to work there on Friday while I meander about the city, probably spending most of the day at the Te Papa national museum.

So not a particularly restful holiday, and I'm a bit nervous about driving around the Queenstown area as tourists who can't handle the roads in the area have been having or causing fatal crashes there recently. One of Greg's colleagues who was there a couple of weeks ago (on the same deal) said tourists kept stopping in the middle of the road to take photos. :-( We plan to visit the Clyde dam (probably not a tourist attraction, I hope) because I like dams and bridges and all large engineering projects and maybe Alexandra which might be dicier as it's a pretty place overseas visitors might go for. Plus there's a steamboat trip on the lake. :-D

I'm just sorry we won't be in Christchurch long enough to see the new cheetah cubs at Orana Park, but hey.

We have to put the cats in the cattery in an hour or so which always upsets me. It's the worst part of going away and the best part of coming back.