Stonehurst Accommodation Christchurch

On the bus early again, and said goodbye to the remaining team members. I had a very long journey to Christchurch with loads of stops for photos, food etc, eventually arrived about 5pm and checked into a nice place called Stonehurst backpackers. An early night followed as I was dropping off watching Harry Potter and the witch's wart (or something), so went to bed about 10. I spent the next day wandering around Christchurch doing odd jobs like posting things home and little bits of shopping th...

Hay everyone. Sorry for not putting an entry on here for a while. It has been rather hectic and access to computers for long enough hasn't been easy. Just before I jump to New Zealand, a quick mention of my last Saturday in Sydney. Junayd and I went out to see three friends that I had met in Byron Bay, in a Bavarian bar in Sydney CBD. When we got there, some downing of litre beers had been occuring, and we didn't stay longer than two beers. Instead we had a swift Japanese where the don't serv...

Well in the morning the weather was perfect at Mt Cook and myself and Nigel decided to do a boat trip on the glacier lake there seeing as I couldn't do much else! We had some great views of Mt Cook too and got to see some pieces of the glacier crashing down into the water although not as spectacular as the Moreno Glacier in Argentina. Nigel planned to do some hiking there so I booked a bus to Christchurch that afternoon then ran into my friend from South America again, Jenny who had been in t...

Hey. Well I made it to Christchurch just fine. Only a three hour flight. The night before though, I took the train into Newcastle from Suzie's at 10pm and stayed at Barbara's. I caught the 4:30am train into Sydney, then on to the Airport. I pride myself in not seeing anything except for the airport in Sydney; not many people who step into Australia can say that. So hell ya! hah. Next time.. But ya, got to the airport at 8ish, and waited a couple hours, then shot off to NZ. I slept on the plan...

Overnight the clouds had rolled in, making today ideal for riding a bus. Leaving Tekapo around 9am, we made Christchurch by 1pm and after a brief city tour I was all checked into the Stonehurst Accommodation by 2. Two of my roommates at Stonehurst are from the Yukon, that small, triangular shaped Canadian province bordering Alaska. Now's that the middle of nowhere. I spent the afternoon wandering around this city of 300,000. Much of the downtown consists of wonderfully restored 2 and 3-story ...

Day 171 - Arrived at the airport at 7am and checked in very quickly - Will had kindly reserved me a window seat. We had a coffee together at the airport and said goodbye resolving that I would have to stay in Sydney much longer next time (and during the summer). As soon as I left our kind friends I was shocked to encounter the most *****y, sarcastic male airport staff, who told me there was a bin for my water bottle and when I asked if there was somewhere I could simply tip the contents and k...

Day 188 - Bloody roomates came in at 1am shouting and singing - couldn't complain though since I'd done that a for few nights before this one - and I'm quite fond of them really. Kev was also supposed to catch a bus at 7:15am - his strategy last night was to stay out all night and sleep on the bus, but when I left (7:30) his bed was empty and his clothes unpacked! Waited for the bus nearly an hour as Spike, the driver, got the times wrong. He's a classic kiwi - wearing shorts in winter and dr...

Greymouth was fun, but all good things come to an end. Actually, we were looking forward to getting out of Greymouth and into Hanmer Springs. Today was basically a travel day. We woke up and checked out of Noah's Ark, leaving our luggage there. We wandered over to the levy near the ocean. All four of us walked along it for a while, but we never found the beach. I still don't know where the hell it was. That didn't really bother me very much. We split up and went to do our own thing around Gre...

We were booked on the 08.30 flight from Sydney to Christchurch, in New Zealand but, being a Qantas flight, surprise, surprise, once again the flight was delayed. Qantas really are one of the worst airlines for delays. As usual the information in the airport was virtually non-existent but eventually a replacement plane was found and we left 4 hours late. Not only were we late getting into Christchurch, but the immigration procedures here are the strictest we have encountered anywhere on our tr...

We are chillin in Christchurch today. We're a bit worn out, we've
been on the move for a week so today we're having a typical Sunday –
at a cafe, drinking coffee, reading and of course typing on the
computer. 'Whoomp There It Is' is playing – we love hanging in NZ
cafes and restaurants because they love music, ALL types of music.
And what's even more cool is that they will play the entire song –
“bad words” included – even in “fa...