The Worcester of Christchurch

... but have to start somewhere, and it was a beautiful sunny day capped perfectly with the first hokey-pokey ice cream of the trip. Edible Kiwiana is definitely what it's about - the excellent fish and chips and the NZ take on a burger which features beetroot - delicious but messy.

The task for today is to finish equipping the car, much of which has been done by scrounging from the 'free' bin at Foley Towers; we also need to go shopping at the Warehouse for a ...

... a huge suitcase and Robert had a carry-on sized one. Kelly, Eilidh and I had backpacks and over-stuffed purses. We got in and the car was manual, which no big deal except we were going to the mountains and I would have to drive the entire time. It’s really interesting in manual cars here the gears are in the exact same spot, so it’s like driving in the states from the passenger seat! But after sitting in the car for a few minutes, trying to get a hold of ourselves ...

... and we left at 9 to catch our 7 hour bus down to Queenstown.
My god the scenery is amazing i mean i have never in all my life seen anything like it there is just nothing here but mountains, lakes, snow peaks, vast plains its incredible and the water is crystal blue not muddy like our lakes but blue. Honestly i could watch it for hours.

We stopped off for lunch at a Salmon fish farm and as we were sitting drinking our tea a little voice went "were you in ...

... off with a red face. We left soon after and crossed the viaduct only to be greeted with another impressive engineering display around the corner. The road hugged the mountainside and a huge concrete awning had been built over the road to deflect land slippage above and across to the other side of the road. This was accompanied with a huge water conduit directing water flow in a similar fashion to burst forth in a waterfall down the ravine. A big dose of manmade WOW. We pushed on through ...

... br>
~After picking up my trusty Wicked (the name of the rental company) camper, preparing for the 2 week trip by provisioning for food at PakNSave and Warehouse for camping/van items
~Awaking to swans on a isolated and beautiful lake and ice inside my camper after my 1st night in the van
~Outside of Christchurch, noting hundreds of sheep, deer and cows in small pastures separated by thick (6-10') shrubberies made of trees
~Grilling sandwiches for ...

... no. 1 and 2! quite a couple to take, but we could hardly complain to them about their racism, or insist that they take a good look around at who's invading who when they moan about the english and chinese invading their country, when all those years ago, us english and europeans, invaded another people's country! let's not forget, australia was home to the aboriginals before we strode in! actually, saying all that, i believe it's probably all well and good if everyone invades ...

... gondola (like at ski resorts, not like in Venice) to the top of Port Hills, it was so cloudy that we could barely see the ground below the observation deck. Inside the center there was a ride called the Time Tunnel. Little electric cars took us through some rooms talking about how the Canterbury region developed, from prehistoric times to the arrival of European convicts and settlers. The Canterbury region is the area that Christchurch is ...

... the hallowed Christchurch Cathedral. $10 earned us the right to ascend the spiralling stairs to the top of the Cathedral Tower from where we had a birds-eye view of the buskers plying their trade a million miles below. Christchurch's tourism infrastructure is well developed and we had a running commentary of all the attractions as we made our way to The Arts Centre on one of the city ...

... Jaime, but the city did have some great shops. We also did a bit of drinking local beers and found some really great eateries. I was especially surprised by how small the city felt, much like a Boise, there are never crowds anywhere. We had a great time in Christchurch and were glad we had a couple days to relax before our really stressful time in Tahiti.

... om zijn mooie collecties, maar hmmm. Het was wel grappig om eindelijk in een museum eens een kaart gezien die opgetekend was door Abel Tasman (in het Nederlands dus). Maar verder viond ik persoonlijk het Otago Museum een stuk beter.
Eindelijk zette het mooie weer nu ook een beetje door, dus besloot ik om mijn heil te zoeken in de naast het museum gelegen Botanische Tuin en hier lekker languit te gaan liggen lezen: mijn tweede boek voor deze reis kwam eindelijk op zijn eind!