I know you've all been anxiousy awaiting my arrival in New Zealand, because, after all, it is an extremely fantastic place. In fact, if the residents spoke spanish and lived off tacos and atole, it would be the best place on earth, haha!
Well, I'm still not able to use my arms and hands other than for essential tasks, so I chilled out in Christchurch (the biggest city on the south island) for a week and thoroughly enjoyed myself. This may be the first big city I've actually liked! 350,000 residents or so, but the central area is a thriving, artsy, happy place, and the central square was always full of buskers, musicians, food stalls, a giant chess set, and the majestic cathedral. It also housed a fab vegetarian restaurant that served Indian fare and had many many gluten free options (including chocolate cake, which I had on my bday!
I did some great day trips to the beach, and up the gondola nearby to hike a bit and get fantastic photos (see the photo album for CC. Are you all finding the extra photos on the right hand side of the screen??). I met up with a friend of Lynne's, Andrew, who lives in CC and was generous enough to tour my friend Rebecca and I around the banks peninsula in his car for a day. Rebecca had arrived the night before, and we reunited (she's the one I met on the bus tour through the outback and then spent Christmas with, and was at the end of her new zealand leg, flying out two days later). We had a lot of fun, good conversation, picnic, scenic views, and the rest. I enjoyed meeting his mother (Marion), who had us over for a cup of tea and is a remarkable woman keen on birding and wetlands and other common interests. She volunteers one day a week cataloging old bird specimins for the museum. I also enjoyed hearing more about Andrew's profession as a travel engineer/consultant. He's highly in tune to the need for pedestrian and bike-friendly transportation planning as part of the big picture.
The whole town took the day off work to celebrate my birthday on the 6th, which happens to coincide with Waitangi Day (treaty day or independence day), a big national holiday. The night prior, I went to see the big to-do fireworks show, which started with 2 hours of symphony orchestra (live, outdoors) and show biz acts, and choir, all extremely professional. It was a really expensive affair and I especially enjoyed watching the fireworks show to the WIlliam Tell Overture LIVE played by the symphony. It seemed as though most of the locals had turned out.
For my birthday I went to the beach and had a picnic, then had dinner with Rebecca (germany) and a new friend Celine (belgium). We feasted and followed it up with a theater in the botanic gardens which was pretty funny.
I decided to get a hop on hop off bus pass for the south island, should take me about 3 weeks to complete, because I still can't drive or work. I met up with the bus on the west coast so that I could take the train over the mountains. The train ride was gorgeous.
All in all, so far, the Kiwis are super laid back, friendly, and generous. I really dig their sense of humor, also. I don't feel I've been here long enough to generalize much or make many insights so that I'll save for later. Cheers, all!
