I decided to spend my last day in Queenstown just walking around and taking in the scenery. I took a walk along the lake front and around the park. It was a really nice clear, crisp, typical Autumns day so everything looked amazing. I then had possibly the best ice-cream I've ever had at a shop that makes hand-made chocolates (and ice-cream obviously). Fig and pistachio in a homemade waffel cone, very grown up and very very nice.
Kate, from the group I came over with, had got in touch with me to say that she would be in Queenstown that night. Her, and some friends she had met while traveling around the bottom of the south island, were going to the cinema and then out for a drink and I was invited to join them. We deicided to go and see Wolverine at the cinema, it was pretty damn good, better than the other X-Men films for sure. I got a nasty shock when I went to munch my popcorn and found it was salted and not sweet. I don't think they do sweet in NZ. Afterwards we headed to a pretty nice bar with a log fire and stuff for a few beers. Later we headed to another for a few more. They sold cocktails in teapots so I was drinking out of them all night, it was rediculous. I wandered back to my hostel at about 3 in the morning so that I could get a little bit of sleep before my bus at 8.
In the morning I fell out of bed and packed up my bags. I headed outside into the nippy cold of the morning to wait for my bus at my pickup point which, as I was staying at a smaller more out of the way hostel, was about a 5 minute walk away. Even though I had called Kiwi Experience the night before to confirm my pickup, and I was at the pickup point in plenty of time, as soon as I got there I had a horrible feeling that my bus wasnt going to come. After an hour of waiting, I was proven right. I called up Kiwi Experience and, 3rd time lucky (1st time I ran out of mobile credit, 2nd time my pay phone card ran out of credit), they told me that the driver had made "an error" (forgotten about me), and that they would sort something out and phone me back. I was called back and told that they had booked me onto a shuttle bus which would leave that afternoon. I now had half a day to kill.
It didn't turn out too bad as, on my way down into town, I bumped into Kate again so atleast had some company. I watched my bingy and sky-diving DVDs again on her laptop for the first time since I got them which was pretty cool. We went for another ice cream from the shop from the day before then I said bye and headed back to my hostel to get my bags.
The shuttle bus wasnt too bad but it felt like it took forever. I departed at 3pm and arrived in Christchurch at 9.45, with only one stop in between. It was pretty hard going but atleast it got me to Christchurch that night, where I already had my accommodation booked. After being dropped off in the main square I set about the task of finding the hostel I was staying at. I hadnt even looked up the address of it yet so I had to find an internet cafe and find out where it was first.
Having done that, I spent about half an hour wandering the empty night time streets of Christchurch looking for the hostel, with a +-20kg bag on my back, my day pack in one hand and my food bags in the other. It was pretty painful but eventually I found it. The hostel is pretty nice, its quite big, not crowded and has everything I'll need for the next day and a bit. I had a shower (which I was in dire need of) and got into bed.
This morning I got myself up fairly early to try and make the most of my free day in Christchurch. After a phone call to the mother, I headed out into the city armed with my guide book. My first stop, after breakfast in a cafe, was Christchurch Cathederal. It's pretty big and... cathederal like, fairly nice inside. I spent some time reading stuff in here and then headed towards Victoria Square. Its like a little park with statues and stuff and fountains. From there I follwed the river through Christchurch. It was a really nice walk, plenty of green grass, Autumn leaves and Willow trees hanging over the river.
I arrived at the Botanical Gardens, had a little walk around and then went into the Museum which was right next to it. It had the typical NZ museum stuff; maori history, stuff about volcanoes, but then it had some different more interesting stuff too about Egypt and Antarctica, so it was better than I expected.
The city it's self is really nice. It's very very very English and reminds me a lot of back home, which is kind of nice. There are a lot of old kind of gothic style buildings and there are loads of shops and cafes and stuff. Everything you could want in a city.
Tonight I probably wont be up to too much, just relaxing at my hostel. Tomorrow I fly from here down to Dunedin to meet up with my Uncle Paul which I'm looking forward to. Apparently we're going out to a veggie place for tea, aw yeah.
