22nd WORLD GOLDEN OLDIES RUGBY FESTIVAL

Christchurch, Canterbury Region, New Zealand


MATCH FREE DAY

DAY 3

Tuesday April 24th, 2018


With today being the first free day of the Golden Oldies rugby festival - and with having no real plans for the day - and having a vehicle at our disposal ..... most of the morning was spent identifying and visiting potential sites for the Dingoes’ team dinner on Thursday night.

During breakfast we had narrowed down our selection to about half a dozen different restaurants, with most of them in the city and one only a few kilometres north of us. Doug, Patrick and I saddled up in our Hertz 'loser cruiser' 12 seater Toyota HiAce Commuter mini bus and headed off for the day.

First stop was the Tavern Harewood and then into the city to check out Pedro’s House of Lamb (which turned out to be a 40 foot shipping container in the Shell service station car park), Pomeroy's Old Brewery Inn (whose function manager really didn’t seem that interested in hosting us at all), Twenty Seven Steps (who said they couldn’t manage 30+ diners in one sitting), Bloody Mary’s Premium Steakhouse at the Rydges Latimer hotel (we could only select from their $85 set Canterbury Feast menu, because of how many of us there were).

After a bit of debate, we decided on the Tavern Harewood being the best option as it was (a) close to us, (b) large enough, (c) had a wide & varied menu, (d) could seat all the Dingoes comfortably in the one semi-private area, but the clincher was that the venue management were more than happy to accommodate us, which included having our own wait staff for the night and discounts ranging from 10 - 20% on all our meal and drink purchases. In fact, out all the venues we visited, the Harewood seemed to be genuinely pleased to have us come and dine at their venue.

With that sorted, and it only being 11 o'clock, the three of us decided to wing it with no real itinerary other than taking a ride on the Christchurch Gondola up to the top of Mount Cavendish, which affords you 360-degree views out over the city of Christchurch as well as Lyttelton Harbour, at the north-western end of Banks Peninsula.

The afternoon was spent traversing the 52 mile (84 kilometre) Christchurch-Akaroa Road, taking in the stunning colours of the autumn leafed landscape around Little River, and then on to the historic French and British settlement of Akaroa, which is located in the heart of an ancient volcano.

Mount Cavendish & Christchurch Gondola
Allandale Reserve
Puaha ~ Autumn Leaves
Duvauchelle ~ Hilltop Tavern
Akaroa ~ French Bay