Christchurch

30 January – 4 February

Sunday

We’re up early and off to the airport.  Cairns airport is tiny and quiet at this time of morning – but Australian airport staff are still the friendliest I’ve ever encountered.  The official at passport control even said ‘hope to see you again’.  Not looking forward to the intense questioning of the UK border agency when we get back.

It’s a 4 and a bit hour flight over to Auckland.  We’re liking Air New Zealand – good food and good films.  We also have an entire rugby team on the plane with us, which doesn’t seem like a good idea – it’s not the biggest plane!

At Auckland we’ve got to go through passport control and customs.  They’re a bit fussy about you bringing dirt (literal) into their country, so we declare that we have a used (and potentially dirty) tent with us.  The kindly gentleman at customs tells us that he’s going to mark it down as a new tent, to save us waiting in the inspection queue.   Which is lovely of him, until our bags get x-rayed and a colleague of his questions us further about our tent.  Not wanting to lie to him, we tell it is not new, which of course leads him to ask why we declared it as new.  Sigh.  A full inspection later we’re finally on our way.  

There’s just enough time for a quick refreshment break and then we’re on the flight to Christchurch.  This is a quick hour and twenty hop, followed by a taxi ride to our hostel. 

It’s about 10.30pm when we arrive (we’re now 13 hours ahead of the UK) and the ensuing search for food produces a breadbun for me and a big mac for Nick – the city is dead at this time on a Sunday.

Janet adds: after coating ourselves liberally with bug spray in the tropics, we don’t bother on our first night in New Zealand and both get bitten similar to the Port Hedland incident.

Nick adds: first MacDonald’s in over 18 months – it hasn’t got any better.

Monday:

We wake up itchy, but the good news is that the hostel we’re in are ‘upgrading’ us to their cottage across the road, which we’ll share with one other couple.  We take ourselves out for breakfast while the rooms are being sorted and are immediately struck with how cheap NZ is compared to Australia.  There’s a lovely café just round the corner where we get the best poached eggs on toast ever.  There’s a turntable in the corner playing old vinyl and lots of interesting reading material to flick through.

We spend the day wondering about the city.  It’s lovely and feels very English (with liberal dashings of ‘ye old English pubs’ on street corners). 

It isn’t exactly cold, but after the Australian heat the low 20s temperatures are feeling cold to us!  We’re going to need to toughen up.  We take a stroll through the botanic gardens and have lunch in the museum, then head to the shopping district where I simply MUST buy panda hoody 2 (apologies to those of you who don’t know panda hoody 1).

After dropping of our (my) shopping, we head out for a few drinks.  First stop is a Belgian beer café on the river.  It’s a great spot, but a bit chilly for outdoor drinking.  Then we discover the bars on Oxford terrace: many of them have fires built into their outdoor tables.  It’s perfect.  We get chatting to 2 local girls over a glass of wine, then head off for possibly the best Mexican ever.

Janet adds: never met people as friendly as the kiwis.  Still wondering what the catch is – surely they can’t genuinely be that nice?!

Tuesday:

It’s a gorgeous sunny day today and we catch the bus over to the Christhurch gondola, which takes you to the top of Mt Cavendish.  The views are gorgeous, and if Nick tells you I was scared and crying on the way up he’s lying (or I am). 

After drinking in the scenery we walk down into Lyttleton. 

On the way we bump into another ridiculously friendly local who’s got about 15 minutes of helpful info to impart.  It’s great that the locals love and enjoy their country this much: he seems to do this walk most days and has played impromptu tour guide to tourists more than once. 

We have delicious sandwiches in the courtyard of a local café then take the ferry over to Diamond harbour.  From there it’s a short walk through pine forest to a beautiful (but pebbly) beach. 

As we’re getting the ferry back the clouds pull over and the temperature drops.  When the bus gets us back into the city we head straight for a table with a fire.  What a brilliant idea.  After a couple of drinks we grab some food and head back.

Wednesday:

We’re having tea and toast in the garden this morning when we hear a rustling in the leaves.  At the age of 31 and after over 6 years in the UK I finally see my first (live) hedgehog, just taking a wander through the garden.  I’m so excited I startle him (her?) and he dashes off.  Needless to say a lot of my spare time after this is spent hedgehog spotting, but he doesn’t appear again.

After a slow morning we head into town to check out the bits we’ve missed so far.  We end up in the lanes around Litchfield street which are full of gorgeous micro-breweries, bars and cafes.  The sun is out so we have lunch in a courtyard in the sun,

then head back to the hostel to sort out a few practical bits and pieces. 

We head back to the lanes in the late afternoon hoping to catch happy hour in some of the interesting pubs. 

We have a fun time touring the bars and I even enjoy a glass of wine on a sofa in front of an open fire – outside. 

Thursday:

We’re picking up our car today, or rather: they’re picking us up!  We’re driven over to their offices where we take possession of an 8 year old station wagon (with a decent safety rating – a must after South Africa).  We’ve found a good hire company that does older cars with free 24 hour AA breakdown cover, no one-way fees and a free south-north island ferry thrown in. 

The afternoon is spent doing not very interesting things like grocery shopping, sorting out an internet dongle etc.

Janet adds: I had to snap and by running shoes today.  The ‘beer and nuts’ diet wasn’t really working for me.  Day 1 of the fitness regime starts tomorrow.

Friday:

My day does actually start with a jog – so far so good.  We pack up some lunch and go to check out the beaches of Christchurch.  First stop New Brighton.  The beach is long but the town is a bit rundown looking.  Also, volcanic sand sounds good but looks a little dirty.  The water is a tad chilly, but would be just fine on a lovely warm day. 

The afternoon is spent on a scenic drive taking in Sumner, Scarborough, Taylor’s Mistake and Godley head.  The scenery is gorgeous,

the polluted water signs on most of the beaches a bit off-putting. 

Late in the afternoon we head back to the hostel where we experience our first aftershock.  Christchurch has been getting them since their big earthquake.  It’s exciting, but makes you realise how terrifying a full-on earthquake would be. 

We cook ourselves some dinner and then take a late walk through town – we’re curious to see how busy town is on a Friday night.  The answer: busier than other nights but still pretty laid back, apart from the ducks!  I'm only mildly obsessed with ducks, and this is something that New Zealand delivers on - in numbers and variety.