Well we have made it to the next place on our around the world trip, the beautiful country of New Zealand. I will probably repeat how amazing and beautiful it is many times in my stories but believe me it is for good reason. Our first sight of the South Island where we currently are was the snow capped mountains visible from the window of the plane as it started its descent into christchurch and from that moment i think we both decided that it must be as stunning as everyone had told us.
We had decided to stay in Christchurch for a few days to have a look around and to start acclimatising (it is cold!) before we picked up our campervan. After spending a while looking at options for where to rest our heads at night we decided on a jail! It was actually a very comfortable place as suprisingly enough it is not actually a working jail anymore but a hostel. We had a nice cosy cell which even had a tv and dvd player as well as a cell alarm button and the original solid metal cell door. In Christchurch itself we did not do much more than wander around the centre which is not very big.
We discovered some good places to eat and some good places to drink too. There were some good deals to be had in both fields! So with cheap drink and food we were happy not to do a lot except for take advantage of these and stay warm with some nice wandering in the city in between. One of the highlights was our experience with a stone grill meal which we came across by accident after being tempted by a sign for half price meals. A big hunk of fillet steak to cook how i liked it on my sizzling hot plate what could be better than that mmmmmmmmm.
We did do other things apart from discovering that there are some nice places to eat in Christchurch although this may sound suprising given what i have written so far. The Botanic gardens provided a much needed walk (to burn off all those tasty meals) and it was nice to see a botanics that was not all tropical plants, daffodils and snow drops were a reminder of home, another thing that added to the perception of England. Walking along the river Avon, in the aptly named cambridge area you could be punted along the river which is banked by weeping willows and daffodils, you can't get more 'English' than that! We went to the very modern and un-english, New Zealandy even Christchurch art gallery also known as Te Puna (maori). The big glass gallery building itself is impressive especially in Christchurch which does not really have any other really modern architecture, it was worth going just to have a look around.
After a couple of days, which was enough for us in the city, we were ready to get on the road. We were picked up from jail and taken to get our second campervan (technically no.3) of our trip. And so Jan Van joined our company ready to take us to see some more of New Zealand next stop some mountains and lakes down south.
