Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Well, this isn't gonna be the kind of interesting and exciting first entry of New Zealand we'd hoped to be writing, more one of bad weather, frustration and decisions! We arrived last Saturday into Christchurch and all was well. We were so excited to finally be here. The hostel was nice, clean, friendly and at 2am that night United won the 18th. We'd settled in nicely and immediately. We were shattered to be honest as we'd put so much effort into getting around Sydney as much as possible and then flying over so Sunday was basically a day to chill, other than going for a gentle afternoon stroll around the city to have a nosey and get some supplies in. We basically spent the rest of the day watching movies and eating stuff. Wasn't complaining to be fair.
On Monday we set off to see some of the city. We followed a walking trail mapped out on our newly purchased, updated Lonely Planet guide to New Zealand, picked up second hand for a mere $15 in the hostel rather than for $50 in bookshops! Now, you may think this is a strange thing to mention, buying a book, but it's one of the more positive moments of the week! The walk was cool, taking us through the city centre past the famous Cathedral Square, around the streets crammed with any number of cafes, along the banks of the pleasant little river, into the Botanical Gardens and rounding off with a wander into the museum. The city was really pretty as it's coming into autumn here and the leaves on the trees are colourful, particularly in the Botanic Gardens. The day had started quite mildly temperature wise, but a weather system began moving in that afternoon and we soon realised a single hoody was just not enough!
With this information on board we set out on Tuesday to stock up on clothing. We bought raincoats, waterproof trousers, hats, gloves, scarves and all that lark! Not very interesting we know, but pretty bloody essential. When we were planning our trip we booked ourselves onto a bus called the 'Kiwi Experience' which seemed like a pretty good deal at the time we got it. Things we've heard since have made us think otherwise and this week has confirmed our fears. We tried to book onto the bus on Tuesday night to begin our trip, couldn't get on on Wednesday, full again on Thursday, the best they could do was make us the 'first 2 on the reserve list for the Friday bus'. We knew then...
Later that night as we were warm and well fed in the cinema watching the underwhelming Angels and Demons in the cinema (seriously, stick with the book), the rain arrived. We raced back to the hostel as it really chucked it down around us. And it has rarely stopped since. With rain forecast and at least 2 days in Christchurch waiting for the bus, with not too much else on own list to see here, we booked a day trip on the TranzAlpine train journey. This is a pretty famous excursion, surely one of the most amazing train journeys in the world. The train left Christchurch at 8.15am to head from the east coast of the south island, through the snow topped Southern Alps and out towards the west coast and a little town called Greymouth. We were probably the youngest on our carriage but at least 40 years but wow, it was incredible. The scenery was spectacular, and we'd heard that the weather was only poor on the east coast and thank goodness it was. Once we got into the mountains, the sun shone brightly and lit up the snow making the views incredible. Can't really describe it to be honest, so we'll just fire on a load of photos we took from the outside viewing platforms as we made the journey. Even they don't really do it justice to be fair, but the photos do make for really nice desktop backgrounds on the laptop! You better appreciate them like we do, cos they took some serious effort to get, standing outside shaking purple from the cold as freezing cold wind whistled through our coats!
On Thursday night we rang Kiwi Experience to receive the 'good' news that we were on the bus at 730 the next morning. So we stood in the rain waiting for the bus on Friday morning, and when it arrived there wasn't even a record of a booking for Chris with the driver. Claire's name was on, Chris's wasn't, even though we'd booked together less than 24 hours ago. There just happened to be 2 seats left so we got on, one of us at the front of the bus, the other at the back. It was totally full. We're not gonna rant about the bus much more on here but basically, it's been a mistake and would ruin our experience of New Zealand having to book things in advance so we are not using it again.
We arrived in Kaikoura that morning and got a bit of an attitude from the driver for having booked into accommodation ourselves, (the Kiwi bus offers accommodation on board, which you do have to pay for, not part of the package, and seem to expect you to just with what they give you) and got dropped off separate from everyone else on board. We also found out we could not get a bus out of the town until Wednesday. This sealed it, no more Kiwi!
One thing that has worked out really well is the hostel we have in Kaikoura. It a small, homely wee place run by a young couple from England who are super sound. We were on our way back from getting a amazing Thai lunch on Friday when one of the owners Mark pulled up beside us with 2 other guests in his car to ask if we wanted to go with them to a little seal colony he knew. It was great as the rain had pretty much cancelled everything else you can do in the town. So we drove out of town to a little walk which lead us through a short path up a river to a waterfall and pool where there were about 30-40 baby seals just chilling out, and playing around under the waterfall. It really lifted our moods, we'd both been a little down on the bus wandering what to do next. So that was definitely an upturn.
On Saturday we knew we had to work something else out for transport to suit what we wanted to do. We had been booked onto a 10am whale watching trip but the 7 metre swells brought on by the weather had cancelled all trips so we used the day to get ourselves organised. That lead us to today's bus journey back down to Christchurch to pick up a car we've hired to get us around the place for the entire remainder of our time here. It got dark and very wet on the way back up the windy coastal road and was a little bit hairy passing trucks, and more them passing you, but we survived.
We're back in Kaikoura now and the weather has cancelled everything here. We've grown tired of seeing the inside of hostels, trains and buses, so we're hitting the road tomorrow morning with the promise of better weather at our next destination. Though we will be back in this nice hostel in Kaikoura when the weather finally lifts totally. Can't let the whale watching pass by! The storm seems to be passing. We have ourselves a nice, spacious Nissan to wander around in, and it's an automatic! Unbelievably easy to drive. Roll on New Zealand...
Love Chris and Claire xx
- comments