Arena Motel Christchurch

... It was also really great to live back with Mark (or the **** as I now like to call him - you may be able to work out why) after so long of us living in separate places.

It was all over pretty soon though, and now we’re both missing it and the people. Boo!





Next on our itinerary were visits from friends!
We had been looking forward to this for a long while and so when it finally came around we were quite overexcited. My friend Maddie was to ...

... Lots of excitement, shouting and the fight ended in the second round. Can’t believe we sat and waited for the quickest match of the night.
I have stayed at a few campsites in all my family’s years of Eurocamp but the fact that this site had sky sports which enables me to watch Sunderland nearly beat Manu U at 5am in the morning has to be the best ...

... I decided to give it a look. It is the last French settlement left in New Zealand and it certainly had a different feel to it – French flag flying, pavement cafes by the water and street names in French. It is a very pretty location but as always the drive to experience it involved negotiating a narrow winding and steep road. It is a popular destination for locals form the Christchurch area for weekends and Sunday afternoon drives so as ever my journey took twice as long as I ...

... much posher than most the hostels I've been staying in!!! In the evening after a yummy dinner (it was lasagne!! :-) ) we went in the outdoor hot tub, it was great fun!

Mornings have generally been quite early, often leaving a place around 7.30-8ish so that we can get to the next place in good time. On Monday we drove to a place called Manapouria where we got a ferry for an hour and then another bus for a little bit which took us to our boat for the ...

... covered, rectangular cookie/candy bar). You bite off 2 of the adjacent corners and hold it in your teeth while you suck up hot chocolate. Then, right before it crumbles and melts, you are supposed to tip your head back and get it all in your mouth. It is so fun and tastes delicious as well.

... which was a bit of a trek over the hills to get to, and once you were just above the beach, there was a tunnel carved out of the rock to give you access to the secluded beach. We saw more wildlife on the Otago Peninsula, which was really pretty with lots of bays and hills - seals, albatross etc, and also drove our trusty Nissan Primera up the steepest residential street in the world (it's in the Guinness Book of Records), although about three quarters of the way up we didn't think ...

... and gallery looking. We also trammed it out to Brunswick Street to meet with a friend of Als for some pizza and beer. All very lovely and civilised! Later that evening I negotiated the trains to locate my friend Lorainne, a fellow Sai Gon survivor, at the pub where she worked - I arrived somewhat exhausted but was lead to the 'chill out zone' and had a lil nap! ah!

... among many others (Scott even has a statue in the city, erected after his ill-fated 1912 expedition to the South Pole). It was the largest city that was quite close to Antarctica and a good starting point for an expedition. Building on that tradition, today the Americans from McMurdo station as well as the New Zealanders and the Italians have their support bases here and the Antarctic Center is a great place to learn more about the Southern Continent. It has ...

... the Wicked office, got decked out in our new van "Road Kill" and headed off on a new route. We created a new route going south this time as we had already done north and the middle part. We already lost some days in Westport so had to cut out the very southernly part of the island but we could get over it and make the most of what we had left to do.

... him set up.


2:45
PM - It was probably a 30 minute drive to the beach, when they took the
opportunity to run down everything we had to do in a few short
sentences- I was hoping they'd repeat it once we had the gear on
though. Once we got there, they just started unloaded all the gear and
dragging it out onto the beach.


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