Christchurch

Trip Start Apr 02, 2008
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56
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Trip End Ongoing


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Flag of New Zealand  , South Island,
Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Christchurch has a very British feel to it...maybe it was all the people pouring out of KFC in the city centre at one in the morning when we arrived. Anyway, we stayed at Hotel So in the city centre, a cool hotel - flashpackers would love it. Two hours sleep and we were up again at 4am for my (Ailbhe) 'birthday surprise'. Clearly, i was still half asleep because i couldn't work out what the big contraption (it was a big basket) was on the trailer attached to the mini - bus. The name on the side of the bus - Up Up and Away - didn't give me any hint either. So i asked another passenger - 'A balloon ride'. Ahhhhh! We eventually got going from a field well outside Christchurch. It was cool, a bit cloudy but good fun. We landed and had some NZ bubbly and happy birthday was sung to me by the group. This was all at 8.30am..pretty impressive. We had a nice few days in Christchurch, didn't get up to much. Went to the races on the Saturday for the New Zealand Cup. No wins. Met a lovely Aussie Couple called Sue and Harry at Hotel So and after we moved out (we went to a cheaper backpackers once the birthday was over!) we hooked up with them again for dinner. They were class. Picked up our dollar a day car from Jucy rentals (it's the El Cheapo deal-basically relocating it to Aulkland within two weeks-they even pay for the ferry!) and headed to Methven. Portumna native Frank Royston moved to the area years ago and has a farm there, so we hung out with him for the afternoon. He brought us on a tour of the farm, gave us 15 eggs and after a few hours we said goodbye and headed for Lake Tekapo.
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