Day 2 - Godley Head / Lyttelton / Diamond Harbour

This is a back blip.

I may have to wait a few days before I can check in on blippers’ journals and respond to comments.  Our day was very full today.

The weather was much better today, in fact we had to get out the sun cream at lunchtime.  Mr MacD and I left our bags with our friends and went off to the “Unknown Chapter Coffee Roasters” just after 6:30am for breakfast - poached eggs on sourdough toast and coffee.  Our friends, their bags and our bags were picked up at 7:45am and we were picked up shortly after.  Then the other four in our group were picked up and we set off for Godley Head.  Our driver is called Neville and our guide is Paul.

We had lots of hills to climb up and it was quite tough, but the worst part was the descent into Lyttelton.  It was steep and seemed never-ending.  Our knees were not happy, even though we had sticks. The views were spectacular and we stopped often to admire them and also to rest.  We were scheduled to catch the 3:50pm ferry across to Diamond Harbour, but we were only just in time for the 4:40pm ferry.  It was a long, hard day - 11.2kms.  Not a great distance, but tough.  Apparently tomorrow is longer in distance, but an easier walk.

Neville met us at the ferry when it docked at Diamond Harbour and delivered us to our accommodation for the night.  It was so good to have a nice hot shower, then drinks and chat before dinner and a delicious meal cooked by our hostess.  We have a lovely room looking back across to Lyttelton and the hills to the east.

The main blip and the extra show scenes from the day.  The photo at the bottom in the main blip is of the sweep of coastline showing Sumner and New Brighton - you can just see the pier at New Brighton jutting out into the ocean. The hanging plants were in the Unknown Chapter café.