Am I in New Zealand or England? I can't tell
Trip Start
Aug 14, 2008
1
20
Trip End
Sep 25, 2008
Christchurch,
South Island,
New Zealand
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
The flight took about 2 and a half hours (and lost a further 2) - the view coming into Christchurch over the Southern Alps was AMAZING! They were covered in snow and from an aerial perspective I couldn't believe how beautiful it was and proceeded to get very excited about what I was going to see in the weeks to come.
In Christchurch I caught the public bus to Cathedral Square - the centre of the city - and what is the first road name I spied? Hereford Street! Hurrah! An Israeli named Evan caught me in the street with my backpack and recommended Stonehurst hostel as the rooms were only NZ$18 a night. I got an all girls dorm (boring... but clean) with en-suite bathroom and ready-made, comfortable beds. Compared to Asia, the standard of hostels in Sydney and NZ are exceptional - just a shame you have to share it with a load of others! Actually it's quite fun! I walked to the supermarket to stock up on essentials and on the walk created my first impressions (which turned out to be my lasting impression) of Christchurch, in that it's just like England! This includes the white trash and undesirable adolescents hanging out in supermarket carparks with the bass on their escorts thumping or on the benches in the middle of town, donning a mohawk and safety pins.
Cooked some dinner and found myself challenged to create anything tasty sans salt and oil (I miss Asia!) and spent some time ready my Lonely Planet and thinking about my trip (as I hadn't given it much of a thought what I was doing for the next few weeks until now!) Was in bed with a trashy magazine by 8pm, which I don't understand as in Sydney it would be 6pm, and in Indonesia only 4 o'clock!
Day 172 - Didn't get out of bed until 11am and was still the first of the 6 of us in the room to wake up! Did a bit of a walk around the city, seeing the sights of Cathedral Square (which has a gothic, Anglican Cathedral in it - amazingly!) and wandering by the river, finding the place very much like Oxford - punting, cycling and Arts Centre (plus a very uninteresting museum!) The town is pleasant and I relaxed a little by the river in the Botanical gardens before going in search of some thick socks, as I am completely fed up of having cold feet!
A day was more than enough to explore Christchurch itself and after a meal of muesli I walked to the cinema for the highlight of my day - I have been dying to see The Dark Knight since I heard it was out in cinemas weeks ago, but having not been near a cinema or not having the time, it is only now I finally get to see what the fuss is about! Interestingly the small popcorn was a good 6 times the size of that in Malaysia, with only a salty option - funny how it changes with the culture!
Day 173 - Did slightly better in getting up at 9:30 this morning and went and booked my tour around both islands (That's after a breakfast of cornflakes and hot water - I don't know how Bampie does it, it's not good!) The company I'm using for transport during the rest of my holiday in NZ is 'Stray' - there are three companies that do similar things (the most famous being Kiwi Experience - a bit of a party bus) and Stray is designed to go more off the beaten track and be more for active travellers. It sounds ideal as it seems you will see more of the country and it was cheaper too (although I just went ahead and booked some days skiing for when I reach Queenstown).
Once the business was out of the way I caught a public bus to Lytlleton gondola, which took me up the Port hills on Banks peninsula for the most beautiful view of the Canterbury Plains and Southern Alps in the distance on once side, the sea on another and an ancient volcanic crater with the bluest lake and Lyttleton harbour (which is where the English first settled) down below. I walked to a viewpoint and sat on a rock to eat my peanut butter sandwiches, taking in the view on such a clear day. If the scenery is this good having only ventured half an hour from Christchurch, I am very excited about what's in store in the rest of the country!
Day 174 - Since the next bus running for Stray from Christchurch isn't until Monday (tomorrow), I had a day to kill in Christchurch and I damn well wasn't going to spend it in the city! I ate a greek souvlaki in the street (still trying my best to try new foods) and caught a bus to the base of the Port Hills to Sing of the Takahe, which is one of the many former rest stops along the Dyers Pass trail into the hills during the time of the depression. This one is marked by some nice tearooms. I walked a trail to Sing of the Kiwi and back, which is a lovely walk through a nature reserve. It felt great to do some exercise and get some fresh air, and I stopped for a rest in a field of sheep taking in the views of the Southern Alps beyong Christchurch below - the contrast between the VERY flat Canterbury Plains and the snowy monsters beyond makes the landscape so dramatic.
When cooking tomato soup (minimal cooking required) for dinner I mentioned to Evan that I was going to watch an Israeli film tonight as the closing night of Christchurch film festival and he decided to come along too. It was raining but we walked to the cinema. The film "Waltz with Bashir" was really unusual, being an animated piece on the creators memories about a massacre in Beirut during the 1980s Israeli Lebanon War - it was pretty heavy but really good - I read the subtitles as Evan enjoyed hearing some hebrew. Afterwards we bought a hokey pokey (a NZ 'delicacy' of ice cream and honey comb pieces) to eat on the way home. Was woken up in the night by the dorm room next door singing Happy Birthday - can't really complain with that one can you?!
