Vagabond Backpackers Christchurch

My last few days in New Zealand were pretty tame. Christchurch seems like a nice city, but I didn't have too much time to screw around. I was flying out after one day. I stayed in a BBH hostel called Vagabond, a cosy place a 15 minute stroll from the city centre. I spent pretty much most of my one free day updating blogs, photos, etc. and trying to burn some pictures to CD. Most places wanted $4 plus to burn a cd, in addition to the time required. Blah. I found 2 or 3 reasonably priced places...

I've arrived in the land of the kiwi's and boy is it cold here! I think the best thing to liken it to is being in England in November but without the rain! Seriously, it's cold - I've bought a scarf and gloves and am considering buying about 50 jumpers and pairs of socks just to keep warm! Things didn't get off to a great start here as I had some more issues with my Australian visa - the x-rays I had done for the New Zealand visa weren't acceptable so I've had to get them done all over again...

I thought it was about time I updated those of you who haven't heard from me in a while so it's time for an entry! These will probably be fairly sporadic for a while as I'm not doing anything too exciting except earning some cash to do the exciting things! So, I'm back in Christchurch and my god it's cold! New Zealand is in serious denial that they have a winter and homes should consider investing in central heating 'cos it's plain ridiculous! You actually breathe cold air inside the houses ...

Well, I thought it was about time I wrote an entry and also before I move on to do some fun things (and possibly more frequent updates for a while!). My time here in Christchurch has been enjoyable and I have made some great friends but it's not somewhere I ever intended to stay or think I could stay ¨C they have a real winter which has near enough killed me after being in mostly warm countries for the past 17 months! Work at PayGlobal finished on Friday which was a weird feeling. It went by ...

And tomorrow I will be back at Auckland, and I will be roomies with Val again! But first, here and now. I am back where Internet prices are not exorbitant as it was in the West Coast, like freaking $1 for 10minutes! Daylight robbery! In good ol' Christchurch (some say Gomorrah) it is $1 for 20minutes, and I have been using it for 57 minutes now and I would probably go for another 20 minutes. The past few days have been nothing but boring, Greymouth was so boring that I watched more than 3 mov...

Woke up to a grey nast sky and it pretty much stayed like that all day. Packed up camp for the last time. Headed straight into Christchurch and had a look at Vagabonds back packers. Really nice and cheap so we took it. Went into town and stopped off at a camera shop, should have it fixed by tomorrow! Used some internet at the library and wandered around town for a while. Back to the hostel and met some travellers who jsut finished a similar trip. They were from Isreal, Sweden, and Belguim. Gr...

Got up before 8 to get some of the fresh made bread in the hostel. Uploaded more photos and made soem skype calls. Headed out to the camera shop to finally get my camera back! Stopped in the botanical gardens on the way back, which were quite nice with all the tulips in bloom. Had a really good spinich, blue cheese and mandrin salad. Watched fun with dick and jane before bed.

I was looking forwards to my second visit to Christchurch; there was something about the place that made me like it. Perhaps it's because it's meant to be the most English city in New Zealand! I was looking forwards to seeing the friends I'd made from the dance class here. Luckily for me (and perhaps unluckily for my wallet!) I managed to time my visit with both a big craft market and an international flower show. I decided that a ride on the tram was in order; it was only fair, as the trams ...

Long bus trip, nice hostel, not much to report as was only there 1 night to catch our flight the next day back to Auckland - o a few weirdos along the way and the German girls working there assuming I was German as the whole hostel had German backpackers! Random! Early start ... grrrrr