Finally New Zealand

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  Christchurch, South Island, New Zealand
Wednesday, December 10, 2008

ahhh... after a 6 hr flight to Melbourne, Australia, an 8 hour layover and then another 3 hour flight (which was delayed because a passenger had an asthma attack) we finally arrived in my FAVORITE country! NEW ZEALAND! in the next 5 weeks or so, my goal is to make sure you get a good taste of new zealand, so you can understand why i love new zealand SO much!...

anyways, we arrived around midnight... made our way into the city and parked ourselves at the first hostel we saw... The Base... now, this is one of those huge, party hearty type of hostels... which is why we stayed only one night... at 2am, you really can't be choosey. even though this is a huge hostel, we immediately felt the effects of being back in a first world, westernized country... three words: "HOT CLEAN SHOWERS" .. this with the welcoming english as a first language was a sigh of relief for us... it truly was a nice luxury that we've come to love... we moved the next day to another hostel called Chester Street backpackers... its basically what we would call a bed / breakfast back home... the standards of hostels and everything in general in NZ is MUCH MUCH higher than asia... i know... shocker huh?

christchurch is an old european settlement that boomed into New Zealand's third largest city... now, when i say third largest, don't think "whoa"... remember this.. New Zealand has 4 million people (total) and 44 million sheep... it's not a very populous country by any means. Christchurch itself is a really nice quaint town, but in terms of tourism, isn't on the strong end... we had two very distinct goals in this city...

1. purchase a campervan - "yes" i said "purchase" as in "pay for" or "buy"... and "yes" a car.... sounds crazy huh? well, let me explain: there are an incredible amount of backpackers like us that go through new zealand... all around the world tickets go through here. so instead of renting a campervan or car (which would probably cost around $2000 for the 5 weeks we'll be here) we bought a van... a car wouldn't work either because hostels here are at the very least $60/night. now... let me introduce you to our car... we haven't picked a name yet, but i like "blueberry" or "papa smurf" and eunice likes "blue belle"... we'll decide in the coming weeks.... after looking at and calling camper vans all day, we ran into an ad for this at Rollston House while walking by... you see, backpackers post up ads at all hostels to try and sell before leaving for their next leg... our van was perfect! a 1994 Nissan Vanette... the van is VERY blue... it comes with a twin bed in the back, pots/pans/utensils, a gas stove, books, hot water bottle, thermos, mug, a six pack of coronas, some wine, a sleeping bag, curtains, etc... everything we would need for driving around NZ... the only real way to see NZ, i might add... we bought her from a south african girl who bought it from a german couple... and the history of this car will continue one further with us and beyond... we were pretty excited as we got a pretty good deal... but payment was a bit of a pain, and at the end of the day, we had to do a cash advance from our bank to get it... did you know you can cash a check to youself overseas? well, we didn't... and so, that's the story with our new ride... we took it for a test spin all over Christchurch before heading to our night's accommodation.

2. our second goal was to visit friends of mine (byoung's) who live in christchurch.. Craig and Nicole (with their 3 children)... this couple i met in 2001 while traveling in Europe... since that time, i've actually stayed with them when i was in NZ in 2001... we spent the night there over a couple drinks, fish and chips (or fush and chups as the kiwi's pronounce it - they think we're the ones with an accent! strange huh?) it was a wonderful time!

Post your own travel photos for friends and family Pictures

cafe in christchurch	car shopping	cathedral square	Chester Street Backpackers
christchurch city center area	goofing off in Hagley Park	lunch in cathedral square	meet maddison and jacob..
our ride...	the inside of our van

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