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The journey from Queenstown to Christchurch is the longest drive that the Kiwi Experience operates so it was no surprise that we were leaving at 8.30am to make tracks! The weather was still horrific as it had been the previous two days which meant I got soaked as well as my backpack as I made my way to the pickup point! There were plenty of hangovers on the bus that day, so it was good that we weren't making any notable stops that day especially because the weather was so poor as well! I reunited with Poncey again on this bus, who was my driver from Taupo to Wellington, and was a really sound driver!
As we left Queenstown we went back through Cromwell and the Kawarau Gorge and further on up over the Lindis pass into the McKenzie Country, this area is named after James McKenzie, a notorious sheep hustler! We also then made a short toilet and refreshment stop at Twizel, where on a clear day you can get awesome views of Mount Cook....apparently....we could see nothing but overcast grey skies and buckets of rain! Mount Cook stands 3,754 metres tall, the height of Mount Cook changed dramatically in 1991 when it lost 10 metres off of the top. Our next stop from Twizel was Tekapo where we got to witness its amazing lake in a full downpour, there was also an old church which was a bit of a tourist attraction as well as a statue of a random dog! None of us were really too bothered about the stop however as we were all so tired and just wanted to get to Christchurch. From Tekapo we travelled through to see the incredible aqua blue Lake Pukaki, the colour of the lake did look pretty damn cool! After that we drove to Geraldine where we made another toilet and refreshment stop before we were back on the bus and travelling through a small town called Ashburton before we eventually made it into Christchurch by 5.30pm! The day had just been all about travelling however, and arriving in New Zealand's second biggest city marked the end of a long day of travelling which most of the bus slept through, as there were no landmarks of importance to see along the way!
Christchurch is home to roughly 400,000 Cantabrians, the city was settled early last century by the Anglicans from England, therefore they say that it is a very English city, with its remaining old Neo-gothic buildings and well-established gardens. After being given a tour of Christchurch's best sights by Poncey, we headed straight for Base Backpackers which is where the majority of the people on the bus jumped off to stay, but I had found a real bargain of a hostel on the net for NZ$17 a night at a place called Frienz, the only trouble was that the bus driver didn't have a clue where it was and I didn't have the address as I had presumed he would know, but luckily we found a booklet left on the bus which had the address in it, he still didn't know exactly where it was but gave me rough directions to the hostel as he dropped me off about 5 minutes ago from it, I went wrong once but eventually found my way to the hostel as night was falling.
I didn't get checked into my room until gone 6pm, and I was pleasantly surprised by the hostel considering how much I paid for it, ok it wasn't the best but I wasn't expecting it to be, it had all the basics that I needed however, a bed with a very thin mattress in a ten bed dorm, but it did have an ensuite, and was close to the kitchen which was very small but there weren't too many people staying there so it was never crowded and was fully equipped plus they had a good TV lounge area as well as a free pool table and a free table tennis table which again weren't great but no other hostel I had been to in New Zealand had these free facilities so it was a bit of a bonus to have them really! After chucking my bags in my dorm I had to go straight to the supermarket to get some grub as I was starving after only having apples for lunch. So I asked the receptionist for the directions and began the 15 minute walk to Pak'n'Save, it was now pitch black by this time and there weren't too many people about, as I got close to the supermarket I could hear a couple arguing who look like they were either high or drunk, and they were shouting at the top of their voices at each other in the middle of the street! I crossed the street as to avoid them and quickly made my way into the supermarket where I could what I needed as well as a rather nice lemon cake that was staring at me, it was on offer so I become weak and caved in and brought it, this was to be the start of a very naughty couple of days for me as I just seemed as though I was unable to resist anything unhealthy, everything that I saw in the supermarket that was bad for me I brought, it tasted good but deep down I knew I shouldn't be buying it.
It was then another 15 minutes back to the hostel from Pak'n'Save, so I didn't return until gone 7pm when I went straight into the kitchen to get my pasta on the go, which I scoffed down followed by my lovely piece of lemon cake which I divided into three so that I could eat some the following nights as well! After dinner I got chatting to a couple of English girls in my dorm who had just come from Australia, so that was what the majority of the conversation was about as I was to be going a few weeks later so I was intrigued as to what they had to say about it, we were chatting away for a good few hours with the time just flying by when they remembered that they had won a jelly wrestling competition in their hostel the night before they left Australia, and their prize was a two nights three day surfing package valued at AU$270, however they were unable to use it so gave it to me for free which I was so grateful for and completely shocked at what they had given me for nothing, I was so pleased. After that time was getting on and everyone in our dorm called it a night.
The next morning the English girls were off early so I didn't get to see them leave as I was staying in Christchurch for a few more nights so got some valuable sleep and a nice lie in, by the time I was ready for the day it was approaching midday, I decided to head straight to the I-site in Cathedral Square where I got the lowdown on what's hot and what's not in Christchurch (CC). I planned my day according to the information I had attained and decided to head to the Cathedral to get the ball rolling for the day, the weather was not very nice, it was grey and overcast with scattered showers throughout the day so it was nice to get inside the Cathedral which was the same as any other Cathedral or church that I have been to before, it was nicely structured and decorated but it was just a Cathedral at the end of the day that was free to enter. After this I strolled further around the square and stumbled across a large chess board painted on the path with large chess pieces to go with it, and then past the countdown timer for the rugby world cup that is due to take place in New Zealand next year, I also past the historic CC tram, before coming across some Maori performers in the street so I stayed to watch them for a while before I carried on my adventure of the city, and went to check out the Canterbury museum which highlights the history of the Province as well as depicting information on the geographical factors that Canterbury had to deal with as well as how transport had evolved there over the years, there was also a recreated town of how CC used to look, it was very interesting and was free entry and gave me an insight into life in the province over the years, so it was a couple of hours well spent. Next on my itinerary for the day was the CC art museum where I stopped for roughly an hour to take a glance at the various exhibitions, art isn't really my thing and museums like this often leave me asking how some of the pieces are really art as I could do the same thing as what's presented on the walls, but having said that some pieces were spectacular.
After this I called in at one more, tiny museum which depicts information about the local armed forces and has a remembrance wall to remember those that have lost their lives fighting for their country. I was here for about 5 minutes before I made my way to the supermarket to buy more foods to indulge in as I had mentioned I was finding it hard to resist unhealthy food whilst in CC! Then I made my way back to the hostel, I returned at around 5pm, and went on the internet for a bit which I had to pay for which I am usually quite reluctant to do but I was desperate to get my skydive video uploaded on the internet so I paid for the internet and low and behold the connection wasn't good enough to upload the video so it was wasted money really. Then after that I made my dinner for that night which again went down well with a nice slab of lemon cake, then I went back to my dorm to be greeted by an English couple who had taken the same beds as the English girls before them the previous night. I was chatting to the couple for the remainder of the night about Australia again, and they gave me their take on the country as they had just been there as well, plus they had a lonely planet book on the East Coast which is exactly where I will be travelling, which they were selling and I managed to barter with them to get the book for about two quid for the latest addition one. We were chatting long into the night about oz before we decided we couldn't keep our eyes open any longer.
The next day Wednesday was my last day in CC, so after another lie in I was again leaving the hostel by about midday and my first port of call for today was to head to the CC Botanical Gardens, which had the Avon River running through it with people punting down the river. The day was a bit better than yesterday as it was dry but it still wasn't warm, after meandering around the gardens for about an hour I made the short trip along the street to enter Hagley Park, which is the world's largest central park behind Central Park in New York which I had been to earlier on, on my travels and Stanley Park in Vancouver. The park was a haven of sporting activity from football to rugby to golf to rollerblading....to motorised yachts which was a strange one, so I sat by the small lake where they were participating in this weird and wonderful sport to watch it unfold, basically there were a load of retired men who used a controller to navigate their tiny yacht which had a motor attached around the diameter of the Lake, it passed a bit of time and wasn't something that I see every day, from here I made my way back out of park passing loads more sporting frenzy, with people jogging past me to keep fit, there was a wide range of ages participating in the sports and it seemed to be where all the local schools would come and play sport.
After making my way back into the city centre I decided to visit the Christchurch museum of Contemporary Art (COCA), it was only a small gallery and only had a few pieces of art from a couple of artists but I actually enjoyed it more than the art museum that I had gone to the day before because I felt like I could associate with the art and it was though every piece was linked and telling a story so I quite enjoyed my half hour in there, after that I went to the local library as they offer free wifi, so surfed the net in there until it told me I had used up my allowance when it prevented me from accessing the net any further so I had to leave, it was funny while I was sitting in there though as all the seating is in front of a huge glass window that looks out onto the path, and there were a couple of chavvy teenagers that passed by shouting out 'geeeeeks' and 'nerdssss' as they strolled down the street. I found it highly amusing. I headed to the supermarket once again before I went back to the hostel that night to once again fulfil my sweet tooth craving as well as get some dinner, when I returned I had my dinner followed by my last piece of lemon cake and then went down to the reception area to participate in that nights entertainment which was firstly killer pool which I came about middle of the pack at overall, but the guy that won was one half of the English couple from my dorm, he weren't even going to play until I encouraged him to and he won a nights' accommodation at the Frienz hostel in Auckland where he was heading next. After that we had a table tennis competition, which was played in a room with no space around the table meaning it was really cramped, the table was in a dire state and the bats were so thin and were falling apart but apart from that it was excellent, it was a knock out competition and I made it past a few rounds but then was knocked out but to be fair the guys that were left in were people that stayed at the hostel long term and were always knocking about on the table whenever I saw them, plus there was one really good Chinese player, not that I'm trying to make an excuse or anything, lol :P After the competition, time was getting on and I had to be up early so I was to bed shortly after.
Love Toby xxx
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