Christchurch, New Zealand 6th
March 2010
New Zealand
finally became a reality on the morning of Wednesday the 3rd of Marh 2010. When
I peered over the shoulders of the German couple to see out the window of the
plane, I saw what I now know were the Canterbury plains, flat green and brown
fields quilted together. The closer we came, the more I had to check for the
subtle differences that assured me we hadn’t accidentally caught a return
flight back from Singapore to Dublin – things like the pine trees grouped
together helped to give the game away.
Once we’d spent
at least another hour getting through passport control, unpacking and repacking
our bags as we went, to get shorts, documents and pack our unneccessary ski
jackets away, we ventured through customs. We had a nice chat with the customs
guy who seemed preoccupied with the prospect of us bringing fruit or a “tint”
(tent) in with us. Eventually we fell onto the shuttle which took us to Cokers,
via some houses that looked similar to those on Neighbours or what I imagine
American houses look like – white clapboard with a deck (“dick”) wrapped around
the outside.
Cokers has been
fantastic, Elaine and I treated ourselves to a twin room instead of a dorm for
the first few days to recover from the jetlag in peace (we’re not proper backpackers
at all really). This has suited us beautifully, as I seem to keep making a mess
when I go to take something out of my rucksack, I tend to take a number of
other things out “just in case”, I’ve discovered my messy habits squeezed into
my luggage across the world unfortunately.
Our first few
days have been fairly quiet, we went for a lie down at 4pm on our first day,
only to awaken like the sleeping beauties we were at 5.30 am the next day. We
got up and ended up chatting to some othere nocturnal hostellers, all eager to
advise on what to do, how to do it and where to do it. We walked around
Christchurch city centre, which seems fairly small (a mini version to the real
Christchurch cathedral), decided we’d try to make a plan of action
involving an escape of Christchurch and then spent our second day recovering
from our super-sleep by watching DVD’s in the too-comfortable TV room, greedily
claiming more furniture than two short girls actually need.
We met a guy,
Jesse, from Achill Island and who we now agree is the sort of chap
who loves to tell you how well travelled and knowledgeable he is. With each
encounter he manages to further annoy us, initially he seemed very helpful, and
then crossed to condescending and patronizing :- “ah girls, how do you not
know what WOF’ing is?”, or “is this your first time away from home?”, although
it’s at the stage where we just nod along and laugh about his ridiculous
comments later on. In general though, everyone in the hostel seems to be hugely
helpful and looking to make your stay relaxed and hassle-free, which we’re
aiming for as well!
We met Mark
(John’s brother) and his girlfriend Kate for a drink and a chat about New
Zealand/the HSE situation etc, and then we met Kate the following day for a
scenic drive to the Bank’s peninsula and Akoroa to swim with some Hector’s
dolphins for the afternoon. The two of them seem unnervingly fit, both have
taken up mountain running since they migrated and recently ran 60km in the
mountains in Kepler – I feel obese in their company!
The drive to
Akoroa was as much an activity as the swimming with dolphins, we left the
Canterbury plains behind us and got stuck into the twisting switchback mountain
roads, each corner triggering a tandem gasp or “wow” from Elaine and me at
shock that the beauty is real and not just a postcard that was photoshopped.
Akoroa seems to be a fairly French town, still with French flags and influences
all over the small summer-house town, we ate in “L’escargot Rouge” for
reasonably priced gourmet baguettes..mmm (mine was like a roast dinner in
a roll!).
We were taken out
in a boat in the bay, which was so big and so completely surrounded by the
hulking mountains that I thought the water was a lake and not the Pacific
Ocean! We spotted a few pods of the pocket-sized (well, not really but almost)
dolphins early on but couldn’t swim with them immediately as there was a calf
in the pod or they were rushing off to do “dolphin stuff” – once we learned
some dolphin facts we developed our theories of what the stuff was (dolphins
mate about 30 times a day, and are the only other mammal who have sex for
reasons other than reproduction). Fascinating! The further out we got, the
bigger the swells were and the boat ride itself was another fun aspect, it was
like a rollercoaster as we were pitched and rolled around in what felt like a
giant cereal bowl or bucket with the mountains on all sides around us with a
layer of clouds floating along the top, it was special. We eventually got into
the icy ocean and bobbed around in our almost too bouyant wetsuits and booties
waiting for the dolphins to come back to us, but they didn’t get too close,
perhaps because of the German guy splashing around loudly in the ocean (he may
have given them the dolphin equivalent of a headache).
We had another
great car journey back to Mark and Kate’s house, having the craic the whole way
(we were convinced Kate must think we never stop talking by the end of the
journey), all the time comparing thoughts on the day’s achievements and highlights.
We ate with Mark and Kate (and wished her luck in her 25km mountain run at
6.30am the next day) and grabbed a bus home, with a rake of locked and loud
Kiwis.
Since we’d missed
the free pig on a spit that evening, we popped into the bar to have a quiet one
and wish Jesse (the big man, as he likes to think of himself) a happy 30th. The
quiet one went to pieces altogether when Jesse bent my ear for a good portion
of the night, and also introduced us to two Kiwi lads who seemed lovely (but a
bit keen). Once Jesse realised we were more interested in listening to the new
guys, he proceeded to try to control the conversation and tell us that the two
lads were farmers (with a bit more of an upcurled lip than I’d like), even
though he previously told me that himself and his brother (who also works in
the hostel) are from a farming background! He’s amusing in the sense he has an
answer for everything, but he’s quite wearing as he keeps insisting on checking
how Irish Elaine and I are by measuring the amount of time we spend in the bar
– so far we might as well be Chinese by his standards! We managed to escape and
run up to our room when Jesse took a break for intermission/cigarettes,
although we remembered that he offered to drive us to the west coast on Monday
if he’s going – it could be interesting/entertaining/disastrous!
We spent this
afternoon in the i-Site collecting a tree’s worth of brochures and fliers for
activities we might be interested in. We used them to plan a wish-list and
rough itinerary; with the help of the horribly hungover Scottish Karen (engaged
to Jesse’s brother, it’s all relative in Cokers!) who helped us to decide modes
of transport that don’t involve Jesse..just in case.
This evening we
went to our first Super 14 game – Mark had already told us that the rugby
wasn’t that great (to my shocked face) because the atmosphere wasn’t great. I
had been excited about the match since the week before Emigration 2010 and
ignored Mark’s views because I always thought southern hemisphere rugby was the
best in the world, and New Zealand would of course provide a good atmosphere
regardless of the type of game because it’s the home of the All Blacks and die
hard rugby fans. To my disbelief, I have to agree with Mark that the atmosphere
was quite poor and there were extended periods of crowd silence during the
game, which wasn’t fantastic until the last 20-30 mins. Saying that, we were
lucky enough to be sandwiched between some entertaining fans in front and
behind us – in front sat a guy and his girlfriend (who looked like his sister)
whose whooping, sqealing and acrobatics during phases was more than enough to
keep us entertained; that was, when the old guys behind us weren’t complaining
about the referee or the big screen throughout the match!
Elaine and I left
the AMI stadium a bit disappointed, beginning to get tired and Elaine feeling a
tad ill. We decided against going out to meet any of the people we agreed to
meet (Mark and Kate, the Kiwis from last night, and hopefully not Jesse
either!), opting for another early rest easy night instead.
8th March 2010
On the Sunday, we
were invited to spend the afternoon surfing in Sumner with Mark (who had
already had a leisurely morning of a few hours of cycling and running). We
spent the morning discovering another corner of Christchurch – we came upon the
Sunday morning brunchers sitting outside by the banks of the River Avon, near
the bridge where the tram (which seems to have been restored to its original
state) clacked its way across. We strolled to the bus exchange and even that
showed how poorly organised Ireland’s system is – there was a separate door for
passengers to get off as the we all got on and paid our fares (which didn’t
demand the exact change, such a nice change!). Sometimes it’s the little things
that make you realise that Ireland has a lot of ground to make up if we want to
compare ourselves to other, more well-organised and well-planned countries. The
bus contained a guy and his surfboard which Elaine and I discussed the
potential stares that you’d get at home for attempting that (but in fairness,
why would you need to bring a surfboard or skis onto a Dublin Bus?).
We spent an hour
or two out in the sea, generally splashing around in the white water and
succeeding in not drowning, but not in standing up on the board – not a bad
effort for my first time though (I think I got some verbal pats on the head
from Elaine and Mark throughout though).
We ended up
staying in Mark and Kate’s for a Thai takeaway so that Elaine could Skype John
with Mark as well – a kind of job lot, bulk Skyping. The evening was lovely to
just chill out with other people because Elaine and I talk so much during the
day, I’m starting to get concerned we might run out of random bits and bobs to
talk about (it could take a while though!). Also, they seem like really
well-connected people as they have a pilot friend who needs to build up hours
of commercial flying so may be able to take us on a very cheap scenic flight of
Christchurch, amazing! After our leisurely evening, we got back to the hostel
late and so didn’t come across Jesse so couldn’t discuss the roadtrip to Franz
Josef so we decided to book the Tranzalpine train instead, involving another
night’s stay in Cokers (they probably think we’ll never leave; although I doubt
they care much).
We took today
fairly handy (again), just settling into a comfortable routine between the two
of us – Elaine has already suggested an hour or so of “quiet time” each day,
which is a fairly genius idea (maybe she’s worried we’ll run out of
conversations too? Or maybe my occasional talking to myself is a bit
offputting!). We bought both YHA and BBH cards, one for the hostel discounts
and one for the discounts it affords for activities. We booked our Naked
Passports to travel around the South Island and ended up chatting to Karen for
ages in the reception, typical of us already.
So the plan is to
start the adventurous stuff tomorrow, beginning at the cracking time of 8.15am
with our scenic train journey!
