Visiting a cousin

Today we head from Hanmer to Timaru, a four-hour journey via Christchurch.  We set off after some muesli, fruit and milk at the hostel.

The drive was all good but as we approached Christchurch, we were shocked by the exodus of vehicles from the city.  It made us so pleased that we had left the city a day earlier before the holiday rush.

Fortunately for us there wasn’t the same exodus leaving Christchurch to the south including Timaru.  There were some bottlenecks which we managed to avoid through clever selection of alternative routes that parallel the main route.  The weather had turned really wet.

We took a late lunch at Dunsandel before continuing our drive to Timaru, arriving mid-afternoon.

We’re in Timaru to visit my cousin Ping and his wife who runs the Grosvenor Hotel, where we would also stay for the night.  After a rest, we took a walk at Caroline Bay before returning to the hotel for drinks and dinner.

Being Good Friday, the law requires alcohol to be sold only with meals.  As we weren’t yet ready for dinner, we could only buy soft drinks.  That was fine with us.

Ping turned up soon after and we had nice chats with him before his wife, Apple, joined us.  Since our last visit more than 3 years ago, a lot had changed.  Back then, Apple had just joined him from Taiwan and didn’t have the confidence to speak English (even though she could read and write).  She helped out the business by doing the dishes.  Now, she speaks with ease and is the backup chef for the restaurant and supports Ping with graphics design for his other businesses too.  I was very happy to see her settle in well into her new life.

Apple had introduced her spicy chicken wings to the chefs and it was so awesome that it made it into the menu.  The other meals which we had were excellent too.

The hotel on the other hand, is an old heritage building in which the Queen stayed at during her visit.  It requires earthquake compliance work.  I really don’t know how one can recover that cost from the room rates.  There’s only so much customers will pay in the Timaru market.