Wander & Nest

Aside from a little cold and minor blip on the sleep radar, these past two week have been great in New Zealand! We had a relaxed weekend at home two weekends ago, just going out to explore a few places in Christchurch. We visited Scorpio books downtown for their great kids store and the Christchurch Sunday market which was like a combination farmers market, flea market, and swap meet all in one.

The weather took an amazing turn last week and we had beautiful week and weekend! Wylie and I took full advantage of our Friday afternoon with our first hike in Christchurch. It was just an hour long loop up in the hills and in just an hour we had so many changing views and environments, it was great! Then we went to Lyttleton for a late lunch and stumbled into an Indian/Nepalese restaurant that was definitely something to write home about.

After such a good day, we were feeling the itch to get out and see more of stunning New Zealand so we decided to book a last minute Airbnb in Lake Tekapo. We made the 3-ish hour drive on Saturday morning and included some recommended stops at Fairlie Bakeshop and High Country Salmon (thanks Cecil!).

We arrived at our lake front Airbnb and were again amazed by the views. 2/2 so far for New Zealand airbnbs! And this time we were walking distance to the attractions, including the little town with shops, restaurants, and of course a playground.

Sunday we spent the morning in town while Mara played and scooted around. Then we visited the Tekapo hot springs. Neither one of us had any idea what to expect and it turned out to be awesome! We got to enjoy naturally warm pools as a family, it was so wholesome it was ridiculous. Mara loved the warm pools, so much so that she demanded to leave the 32C play pool for the 37C family pool. She was in heaven!

Best of all the little adventurer was so tuckered out that she slept the whole way back to Christchurch. She even slept through our stop for take home pies (savory meat pies not sweet pies) from Fairlie Bakeshop, they were really delicious!