Oooooh it reminds me of Scotland.....
Trip Start
Oct 05, 2007
1
47
97
Trip End
Oct 04, 2008
Christchurch,
New Zealand
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
We were staying in a lovely hostel with an owner who couldn't do more to help you if he tried and comfy beds with huge duvets phew!! This was all rather welcome after the DISGUSTING hostel we stayed in in Sydney! We liked New Zealand (NZ) allready!! Having found a fleece and shoes without large holes in we were all set for exploration and pounded the streets of Christchurch visiting the cathedral and generally having a good nosy round! The following day we took a trip out to the french settlement Akaroa, a beautiful little town on a peninsula formed by volcanic erruptions and guess what??... it REALLY does look like Scotland!! We went for a bracing walk, had lunch by the waters edge and visited the museum which as it was proudly displayed was the best $3 we had spent in nz so far - in fact for us it was the best $2.50 (we've decided to be students where ever possible)!!
On our last day we decided to take advantage of the free bikes at the hostel and cycle to the antarctic center...we soon worked out why you normally pay to hire bikes....Kathryns breaks were fairly ineffective and I had one very low gear so i could only go at a certain speed before the peddles started going faster than my legs and my seat was too low, yet i could hardly reach the handle bars...i'm still crippled from the expereince!! None the less the Antarctic center was amusing, we experienced a minus 16 wind chill (outside didn't feel so cold after that), saw some blue eyed penguins and fossils of leaves from the antarctic - no it wasn't allways covered in snow and ice!! Our ride back took us through the beautiful botanic gardens and we managed to arrive back in one piece despite my chain falling off twice in the last 5 minutes of cycling!! Even better we stopped walking like cow boys after only a couple of days...maybe we'll stick to walking!
