RAIN

Friday 5^th November 2010 (remember, remember the 5^th November gun powder, treason and plot!)

MP3 track of the day: Remember, remember

If you are looking for Thursdays post then it is below this one.

Weather: Miserable and wet in Oamaru and even worse in Christchurch … most definitely the worst day of the weather I've had since I've been in New Zealand, and possibly the worst since I've been traveling (I like to think that the south island is sad to see me leave).

When I eventually got in from seeing the penguins last night, I went back to my hostel, got through the front door after the third attempt at the combination lock, and was greeted by five old people, in the living room, sitting on the couch by the fire. At first I thought I had stumbled into the wrong building but then I noticed the 'Youth Hostel Signs' and I thought that they had stumbled into the wrong building. Luckily though no one else had checked into the dorm I was staying in and so I had the room to myself for the night.

My coach wasn't as early as most others and so I had a semi-leisurely morning until I had to get to the bus stop at 9:30am. The coach driver didn't do any running commentary for my final long distance coach ride in New Zealand; the journey was pretty uneventful, until we had almost got to the bus stop within Christchurch city center and the driver decided to scratch the side of his coach along a truck. This added a few minutes to the journey but no other dramas.

It was throwing it down in Christchurch and so I headed to the hostel I had booked myself into, the YHA Central. Located just around the corner from the Coachman (where I stayed last week) the YHA turned out to be cheaper this time as the Coachman had put their prices up for the high season.

I got into my dorm and had the pick of the beds. I didn't stay long in the YHA as it was 2:30pm and I hadn't had any lunch. I went out into the cold, wet day where, after lunch, I went to the local library to use their free internet to check myself onto the flight to Auckland tomorrow, all is good.

After this I returned to the YHA (to find someone trying to sleep in my dorm at 4pm!) to have a shower. After a lovely long shower I then head back out into town and got my tea (fish and chips) before settling in for a quite night by the TV (I'm so old).

Today has been all about getting to Christchurch to get my flight to Auckland tomorrow. So far so good, but I am totally gutted to be leaving the fantastic and beautiful land the Kiwi's call the south island. Mount Cook, Lake Tekapo, Milford Sound, Franz Joseph, Wanaka, Queenstown take your pick! The whole place is stunning and I am going to miss it all.

My average has gone up to £39.00 per day; I'm actually quite amazed that my average is still below my £40 per day budget considering, this past week, I've taken quite a few bus journey's, spend £35 on souvenirs and generally found it difficult to keep to my budget per day. Still this amount doesn't include my flight tomorrow so I may still go over my budget right at the very end of my trip … I hope not as I've tried so hard to keep to it!

What's there to do in Christchurch?

Monday 1^st November 2010 (white rabbits, white rabbits, white rabbits)

MP3 track of the day: Samwise the Brave - Lord of the Rings

Weather: Sunny with a cold strong breeze

I don't like today … the 1^st of November. November means the beginning of the end of my trip within New Zealand as I fly out next week (8^th November) and I would love to stay here another couple of weeks, maybe even another month … still, better make the most of my time while I'm here hey.

Again I was up a decent time and I was glad to see the old guy, in the bunk below me, had already checked out. Last night I watched the three girls, in my dorm, play a re-match of monopoly. They asked if I wanted to join, but I declined as it looked like a serious game and I eventually retired to bed before I saw the out come. Walking back to my dorm I thought about the game monopoly; the whole objective is to bankrupt your opponents whilst you own as much as you can with as much money as possible … what picture of our society is that painting?

I was about ready to go out and the three girls, in my dorm, were still fast asleep. They were all leaving today, and I wanted to wish them well, but I couldn't be bothered to wait around and so I just left the dorm. I was a bit unsure what I would actually do today; Christchurch is nice but there doesn't seem to be a lot to do. The only thing on my list was the Christchurch Botanical Gardens and Hagley Park … that should take up a couple of hours.

However before I got to the gardens I had to post home my souvenirs that I purchased yesterday. $43 (£21.00) it cost me to send home a hardback photo book, a jade pennant and a 4GB memory card full of photos … oh and some postcards. I thought about it and actually it's quite cheap; firstly its a heavy parcel and secondly that's delivery, to the UK, within five or six working days (or even three for the UK) … pretty good really.

I finally made it to the gardens and they were lovely. Within the park there were different gardens all with a particular theme; me being me, I decided that I wanted to see all the gardens and so I devised a route where I worked around the outside first gradually making my way to the center garden, the rose garden. Well it didn't quite work out how I planned but I did get to see all the gardens. Two bits which stuck out were the bonzi tree exhibition and a display garden that I thought, if I had my own garden in the UK, I would want it to look like this display (so I took quite a few photos). Walking around the gardens took three and a half hours and so it was time for lunch. I headed back into town for a pit stop at Subway before returning to the gardens and going into the Canterbury Museum, recommend by the three girls in my dorm.

Just like every other museum in New Zealand it was free to enter and, surprisingly, it was really, really good. The museum covered ancient maori lfe, 1950's decorative arts, Dinosaurs, Antarctica, Asian Arts (which included Samurai stuff … a nice little taster or what's to come in Japan, hopefully), Mummies and many, many other exhibits. The museum deserved a whole day, however I wasn't in a 'museum mood' and so I only spent two hours and quickly scanned all the exhibits. It was now 3pm and I had been on my feet all day, I was tired and so I headed back to my hostel. Surprisingly today had turned out to be a busy day which, if you had asked my this morning, I would have said that there was very little chance of that happening. In the end I've enjoyed Christchurch, it's taken me a little while to like the city, however I don't like it as much as Wellington (and no way near as much as Queenstown or Wanaka or Taupo) but it's still a good place to visit for a couple of days.

After chilling at my hostel for a while I went to the local fish and chip take away for tea before retiring to the common room to watch a little television. I need to have an early night to night as my bus to Dunedin is at 7:45am tomorrow morning.

Toodle Pip!

British architecture … but not really British

Sunday 31^st October 2010 (Happy Hallowe'en … yeah right)

MP3 track of the day: One Ring to Rule them all- Lord of the rings

Weather: cloudy and cold in the morning due to the strong breeze. Winds settling down and the sun coming out in the afternoon.

Last night I went to sleep lateish due to me watching the three girls in my dorm (who happen to be quite nice and from the UK) play monopoly … I tell you what girls can bargain, and bargain hard (they can be so cruel sometimes). Anyway so we all returned to the dorm around midnight; there was an unpleasant smell within the room and I was pretty sure that it was the old kiwi man sleeping in the bottom bunk below me … well at least he wasn't snoring. At this point I had to remind myself that I was 'living the dream'.

I was up around nine and I went out pretty quickly. I took my camera and decided just to walk around Christchurch for two hours taking photos. First destination was the main square which included a pretty cathedral, a giant chess set and a couple of statues of dead important people. After this I headed around the town taking photos of new, old and destroyed buildings; the aftermath of the earthquake, that happened here two months ago, is still very much apparent with roads closed and buildings missing walls. One nice touch is that, on one particular church, the scaffolding has models of people kayaking, mountain biking and partaking in other out door activities. This being New Zealand, out door activities play a huge part in everyday life for all.

After my walk I returned to my hostel to drop off my camera; then I head straight out for lunch and then a little souvenir shopping. I knew pretty much which souvenirs I wanted; firstly a photo book of New Zealand and secondly a green stone pennant. The pennant wasn't a problem but none of the 312 souvenir shops, within Christchurch, had any photo books. It wasn't until I changed tactics and went hunting for a book store did I find a huge collection of photo books. It took about an hour to flick through most of them and find the best one (which happened to be the first one that I looked at) which wasn't perfect as there were no good images of 'The Church of the Good Shepard' with Lake Tekapo in the background (which seemed bizarre to me).

Yet again I went back to my hostel, this time to drop off my souvenirs and pick up my camera. I took a few shots of people playing chess, in the main square, before heading to the Christchurch art gallery; the biggest collection of New Zealand art in New Zealand and, best of all, it's free. I'm not a massive art lover but I thought I'd add a little culture to my day and spend a few hours in the gallery.

Twenty three minutes later and I was done. I had two favorite bits; firstly there was a piece which was a blue square with a lighter blue line in the middle of the square (the title of the piece should have been 'I can't be bothered'). My second favorite was the explanation of one piece which said something like “... the essence of this piece has an unearthly underworld aspect...”. I would have described it as a good photo of a flower, because THAT'S WHAT IT WAS!

After this I sat outside the art gallery to have a look at my guidebook; ideas were disappearing fast and it was only 2pm; there were the botanical gardens but I wanted at least something to do tomorrow. The only thing left that I fancied doing was heading up the cathedral tower for some good views. It's ironic that the church charged me to go up their tower, when the New Zealand government hasn't charged me once for any other activity that I have partaken in (no walks or the art gallery or the Te Papa museum in Wellington charged me a cent) however, I did get a free 'chocolate fish'. To add insult to injury the views weren't that great, not bad but not great … oh and you could get a certificate of your achievement climbing the tower, but you had to pay $2 additional dollars for that … I didn't bother.

My final task for the day was a very important one; last night I had noticed that a guy at the hostel had a 1.5lt bottle of vanilla coke. I had never ever seen a bottle of vanilla coke that big but I knew I wanted one. The guy last night told me that he got it from 'Pack and Save' (our version of Lidl) for $1.73! Armed with this information, and the directions of the nearest 'Pak and Save' courtesy of the lady on the hostel reception desk, I went hunter-gathering and my prize was a 1.5ltr bottle of Vanilla Coke … yum.

Some people say that Christchurch is very British; I can see where they make that assumption as quite a lot of architecture is similar to British design. However, as Sarah explained to me when I first arrived in New Zealand, architecture here is very different from building to building and so British architectural buildings are diluted by other designs resulting in the city, to me, not feeling very British at all … though its certainly more British than Victoria in Canada. The other surprising thing about Christchurch, this being the third largest city in New Zealand, is that there isn't a lot to do; tomorrow I'll visit the park and the botanical gardens but, apart from that, I don't know what else to do.

It's Hallowe'en tonight, the worst day of the year in my book; its where I try to hide and hope that it goes away … quickly. Tonight will be no exception and I reckon an early night with my bottle of Vanilla coke is in order.

Toodle Pip!

Arrived in Christchurch

Saturday 30^th October 2010

MP3 track of the day: Ash and Smoke - Lord of the rings

Weather: Cloudy start in Lake Tekapo, becoming a beautiful day just as I was leaving for Christchurch (damn). Christchurch had okay weather, quite warm.

Again I was up reasonably early and, breaking with tradition of just staying in my hostel awaiting my coach, the weather was getting better and better and so I headed out with my camera. Yet again I headed to the lake edge, and the church, to take even more photos.

After this I headed back to the hostel, for some lunch, before going to catch my coach. I wasn't the only one catching the coach to Christchurch, an Austrian girl, who I had also met in Te Anau, was going too and so we walked together. Once at the bus stop we both noticed how the weather had improved to be, well, perfect … just as we were about to leave. We both ran to take a quick photo of the beautiful lake in front of us before we left. As we pulled off I was a little annoyed with my fortune with the weather, still I may not have got the best photographing weather but at least I'd seen Lake Tekapo at its best.

The bus ride was pretty uneventful, apart from the diver having to turn around after he had realized he had missed a stop and forgot to pick up a passenger. The driver had the personality of a walnut whip and his commentary was a) dull and 2) sent you to sleep.

I arrived in Christchurch at around 4:30pm and found my hostel with ease. I've broken the tradition here and I'm staying in 'The Coachman Backpackers' hostel rather than the YHA. The main reason is because it's a lot cheaper and … well that's it really. It's a nice hostel set in a really old, traditional, Victorian design building with high ceilings. For once my dorm is full with five, out of the six people, being British (and very nice too) and one being an old native New Zealander (who seems okay).

Once I arrived I chatted a lot to the other English people, due to the fact that they had just come from Asia and they were going around New Zealand and then Fiji; we exchanged notes before I headed to the laundry room. Doing my laundry was as exhilarating as any laundry experience, though secretly I'm still relieved when my clothes come out the same size as when they went in.

I put my washing away and then, finally, I headed out into town to find a convenience store to purchase water and then a take-away fish and chip shop recommend by the hostel. Well the first part went okay but the take-away closed at 7pm (what's the point in that!). I could have spent the next hour roaming the streets hunter-gathering, instead I decided to finished off the food I had left from Lake Tekapo, which evolved more cheese sandwiches, crisps and a little chocolate.

Now I'm just chilling in the common room; there's a good crowd here and it's nice to have quite a number of people around; the last couple of weeks I've been out in the sticks where sheep outnumber people by 2:1. Still, Christchurch seems so big compared to what I've been used to, not sure I'm ready for this city life.

Toodle Pip!