Christchurch is another city with a really nice feel about it, I will enjoy my few days here when I come back for the rugby and to drop off the campervan at the end of June. We took the opportunity here to have a good look around and get our bearings, which included a look at an amazing sports pub in town, called the Holy Grail, which has a 10 meter big screen with a 5 meter one right next to it and hundreds of plasma TV's all over the pub for all types of sport, but mainly of course rugby! There is a huge banked seating area for the big screen above the main bar floor and three levels, all filled with screens and pool tables etc... Basically, if you can't get to the game in town itself, then this is the place to be! Awesome.
Having only spent one night in Christchurch, we were off the next day to pick up Chris's little hire car, a natty little red thing which will do the job nicely, and then we were off heading to the west coast of the south island, via the famous Arthurs Pass, which runs right across a spectacular mountain range. Today was also my birthday! Happy birthday me! I turned 36 years old today, yes I am an old fart! The trip was pretty laid back, as Chris was getting used to driving again after quite some time since his last drive, and we stopped in a few places to take in the amazing views, finally reaching our overnight point of Hokitika, which after a quick inspection of the town and a check of the time we decided to ditch, and head on another couple of hours to Franz Joseph! We were only going to use this as a stop over, but it really didn't appear to have anything much to do with the few hours left of the day...
That evening we met to eat a hearty meal for tomorrows planned big walk, and had a couple of beers before Chris headed off and I went to the little pub at my camp site for a few more wet ones, seeing as it was my birthday! I then met a random Maori bloke, through a text message! I was sat supping a dark ale when a text arrived on my phone which simply said "sup". I replied with "Sup yourself" and thought nothing more of it. Later still, when back at my van, I recieved more texts from this person, who thought they were texting a mate. Once I'd told them that they clearly had the wrong number, I got another text, from a different number, asking "wassup cuz". This turned out to the be the cousin of the original texter, finding out who I was... anyway, we texted back and forth for the rest of the night, in a bizzare conversation and getting to know you fashion! The guy was using text 'speak' rather than actual English, which was tricky to understand in places, but we ended up getting on ok and hopefully he can furnish me with some info on good places to go for a night out in Auckland, where he lives, for when I go back there before I leave... you never know, these kind of contacts might be handy! Random! Lol.
Pics of the little red sports car and the Arthurs Pass drive are on facebook
