Happy Mick: New Zealand Day 9 : Kayaking in the Avon River, Mitchell's Track and Sumner Beach

6/11/2016 Sunday

After 8 days on the road, today we decided to just chill in Christchurch town.
First up, breakfast first at Addington Co Op.

some type of toast but yummy

Nice environment

Ordered The Big Breakfast, Hot Choco and for Jou it's always the Cappucino

After breakfast, Jou drove to the Botanical Garden again and for this time, we are going to kayak our hearts out.

beautiful daisies grow freely by the Avon River

Can't help but to lay down on the beautiful daisies watching ~~the world goes by~~ gondola passing by. It is like in Venice (it's not like I have been to Venice, but with more greens here)

After that, we walked to this famous Antigua Boat Sheds to rent our kayaks.

But first, feeding time !

Feeding some mandarin ducks before kayaking session

each of us have a kayak to ourselves
We chose to kayak than to just chill in the gondola. It was a windy and cloudy day and this kind of weather makes kayaking really good experience. We just kayak gently and go with the wind. It was utter serene and peaceful.

There is a hospital next to this river and I saw a bed-ridden patient with a oxygen tank still attaching to her was watching all the kayaks passed by. Life is so fragile you see. I hope she gets well very soon so she will be able to kayak like us!

the river is so clean, even the ducks wants to kayak together as well

Yup, that's us!

Look how clear the river is...

model of the day. Just casually laying down on the beautiful daisies and Jou helped me to shaped my hair into 3 hearts. Just love my hair colours at that time.

I had a tough time washing my hair on that night! Haha.

Jou then drove me up the hill at Cashmere for tea break and we stopped by The Cup Cafe.

Enjoying the panoramic view of Christchurch while having a cup of hot camomile and a piece of lemon cheese cake at The Cup Cafe

Enjoying my hot camomile overlooking the whole of Christchurch. Now I remembered, they served the best camomile!

Lemon cheese cake

Ya, as you can see, I carried along my blue journal with me, luckily I wrote down all the details which I now I'm using it as a reference to type this blog. I also wrote a postcard to Eddy, asking him to bring me here again in the future :P

Not far from The Cup Cafe, Jou drove few metres away to Mitchell's Track.

But first, let me jump !

There is this coronation hill reserve, Sign of the Kiwi which is right in front of the Mitchell's Track.

One with the signboard

This is the route up the hill with beautiful yellow flowers along the steps

And then you will be rewarded with this amazing view which reminds me of Akaroa!

We parked our car in this parking area and just able to walk to the Mitchell's Track and the Signs of Kiwi. One stone kills two birds.

Admiring the scenery

Ok, enough of the hills. Jou said we still have time, so she drove us to the Sumner Beach. We parked and then stroll along the beach. Too bad we were wearing sneakers and we did not barefoot because we do not want to dirty our feet.

Then we came to this Cave Rock (an unusual volcanic formation) on the Sumner Beach.

One with the Cave Rock.

Another one

View of Sumner Beach

It was super cold and windy and I bet the sea water is freezing cold. Saw some surfers surfing though.

Then, it is dinner time! Jou brought me to The Cassel's and Sons Brewery Cafe which is located at The Tannery to have the best pizza in town. They are famous for its crafted Euro-style fresh gourmet thin-based pizzas.

The Tannery has a range of exciting and unique shops in beautiful station-like building covering fashion, gifts, homewares, recreation, leisure, crafts, dining, health, beauty and postal servises. Too bad it was already closed when we arrived there hence, we headed to the Brewery Cafe straight away.

We order the half seafood and BBQ pizza. Yes, indeed the best pizza I ever had so far..We had a local crafted beer as well but too bad I can't find back the picture of the beer

Jou told me not to order desserts as she wanted to bring me to try the best tiramisu in town at Valentino Cafe.