Christchurch

Trip Start Sep 11, 2008
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Trip End Jun 05, 2009


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Where I stayed
Tranquil Lodge
(Christchurch hotels)

Flag of New Zealand  , South Island,
Saturday, January 17, 2009

We drove right across the South Island from Hokitika to Christchurch via Arthurs Pass. We stopped at the Devils Punchbowl waterfalls for lunch then picked up a Hungarian hitchhiker who was cool and went to Stream Caves which the public can go caving in, 600m long in waist deep water for an hour. I was up for doing it then tested the water and quickly changed my mind, I keep forgetting all rivers and lakes here are freezing cold. We drove on to Castle Rocks, a formation of limestone boulders eroded by the elements which looked a lot like the Peak District. 50km later we came to Sheffield! Lucy stopped to take a photo and realised she had left he camera on the roof of the car at Castle Rocks as she waited for me to open it. So we drove all the way back as a family were parked on the road and loads of other tourists were about. We have seen notes everywhere for lost and found stuff and items put in places for people to come back and get them but no joy. We searched the roadsides for about 5km but nothing, no smashed pieces of it in the road or anything so someone has it. Lucy was gutted and inconsolable for the rest of the day. We reported it to the police and Department of Conservation in Christchurch but nothing so far. It had all the pics of Sydney and New Zealand on, we filled a small memory card, luckily all the big ones are safe in my bag. We almost burnt them to dic that morning but didn't as we wanted to get driving early. Hopefully it might turn up soon.
Christchurch is wierdly like England, the smalll River Avon with weeping willows alongside is flanked by Oxford Terrace and Cambridge Terrace and I kept feeling we had finished our travels and were back home. We dropped the car at 9am, expecting to be stuck in a rush hour which just doesn't exist there. We spent the day in the Botanic Gardens chilling out and went to the Canterbury Museum with a good Antarctic section. We met a nice couple at the hostel who had just done South America and were headed for SE Asia so swapped storied and advice.
We went out to Lyttleton on the coast to meet up with Lucys neighbours from Chalfont Stuart and Anne's son Malcolm and his girlfriend Lindsey who bizarrely is from the same street as my Mum in Swaffham Prior. Malcom told me the first Antarctic explorer machine I had spent ages the day before looking at was designed by Annes stepdad, another case of it being a small world. We had a few beers then went to see a gypsy band called the Benka Borodovsky Bordello Band which was pretty entertaining, can't say I loved the music though. The little theatre/club the Harbour Lights it was in was cool and I had some tasty beers. We had to leg it halfway through the second half to get the last bus back to Christchurch which we just caught fortunately, Lucy had not quite enough beer to do the old missing bus, expensive taxi routine.
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