We travelled from Wellington NZ to Cape Town SA for a total of 31 hours including delays, of which 19.5 hours were spent in the air. First night was spent in Cape Town at Hotel Verde near the airport.
The next morning, after a huge breakfast, we set out to pick up our Budget rental car - recent model Hyundai 1.6l manual. After ending up at the wrong Hof street in Cape Town, courtesy of GPS, we arrived at our apartment at about midday. Harold took the hop-on/hop-off bus on the blue route (mini Peninsula tour) around Table Mountain and stayed on for a full 2.5 hours. Saw many sights - mountains, winelands, informal settlements, Hout Bay, Camps Bay, to Sea Point and the V&A Waterfront.
Alta drove to Durbanville to visit a friend and to stock up on some groceries.
On the second day, we picked up the Blue Tour hop-on/hop-off bus at the bottom of Hof Street. We got off at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens and spent a couple of hours there.
We saw lots of plants indigenous to the Cape and South Africa - proteas, cycads and giant trees.
Our lunch at Moyo restaurant included fried mopanie worms and strips of springbok meat. Afterwards, we visited Groot Constantia wine estate where we did a tasting and a cellar tour.
We continued on the bus tour to the V&A Waterfront and took an half an hour boat trip in the harbour.
We shopped for shorts and shoes at V and A and then had a meal a one of the many waterfront restaurants, named 'Karibu'. Here we enjoyed a traditional waterblommetjie-bredie and a Cape Malay curry, followed by a dessert of tipsy tart and stewed peaches. We tried to use Uber, but failed, and took a taxi home to our apartment.
We had a late start on our third day as jet lag was starting to take its toll. We walked down through the 'Company Gardens' to markets near Adderley street and St George's Cathedral, where we bought some sandals and clothing. We took the red route bus up to the Table Mountain cableway. Cloud had come down and with strong winds added to the mix, the cable car was closed. We managed to take some pictures from the cable station.
We hopped back on the bus and continued to Camps Bay - had a fish and chips lunch and a walk on the beach and rocks. The water was clear, with large kelp forests and lots of sea-birds. We got the last bus back to town and transferred to the yellow bus to get out 'our' No 15 stop. It was raining steadily by then and we walked back to our apartment in the rain, hoping that the downpour might bring some relief to the drought-stricken Cape.
On Alta's birthday, we visited the 'Castle of Good Hope'. It seemed to be situated in a dodgy area with busy taxi rank nearby. We watched a mini cannon being fired at the castle and joined a walking tour for a while. We went on to the Two Oceans aquarium, then got Alta's birthday present at the market nearby.
Later that day, we drove to Durbanville and had a Snoek braai with Alta's friend and her family. They prepared two versions of snoek - smoked and 'braai'ed', served with a delicious mixed salad of berries and salad greens as one of the side dishes.
On Sunday morning we walked down to the Company Gardens once again and visited the South African museum. We also fed the squirrels on the way there and back.
Harold drove to the Tygerberg Nature Reserve to join the Cape Town Hash House Harriers that afternoon on an off-road run (behind the boerewors curtain). The route offered great views from the summit - in all directions - False Bay, Table Mountain, Hottentots-Holland mountains and Cape Town Waterfront. Harold met "Gutter Guts" (Bruce), "Heranus", Bob "Doggie", among others. About 15 members joined the run/walk. Only "Gutter Guts" really ran (and Harold). Alta visited her friend and drove back to the apartment. Harold was dropped off at the apartment by a friendly Hasher.
On Monday morning, we took a tour bus trip to Cape Point via Fish Hoek and some other places. We saw baboons from the bus. The route went from the city through Newlands, past Constantia valley, Muizenberg, Kalk Bay, Fish Hoek, via Kommetjie. Misty cliffs on the other side of the mountain, via Scarborough. We stopped at Cape Point and took the funicular to the outlook. From there, steps are leading up and down to various viewing points. Harold climbed up to the light house and followed the guided walk down to the beach and back to the pick up point.
