Christchurch (8th March)

The hostel last night was very comfortable I have to say but just lacking in other people, severely lacking in other people, so instead of helping the situation and staying another night I decided to head off somewhere else! It was a nice little hostel but all the windows were high up and with no one about it was beginning to feel a little like a prison! So at 8.30 am I started calling the other hostels again just to find they’re all fully booked still. Someone seemingly forgot to tell me that not only is this a city (!) and that it’s the weekend, and that it’s the summer still, but that this city also has its annual flower show on at the mo. I did find one place though with a bed for the night so headed straight over there and checked in.

For my last day in NZ I had around 100 plans, at least, realising though that I would be lucky if I managed one or two I headed for the Sunday market to try and pick up some last minute bits and pieces. The market although very interesting and colourful was mainly imported goods from Europe (!) and Africa (!!) both of which I have plenty of!! The only things from NZ really were the fruit and veg so after deciding that taking these home really wasn’t an option I headed back into the city centre to the art market.

Parking over the whole of NZ on a Sunday is always free, even when I asked at the hostel the guy said it was free. So how come every place I tried to park at in Christchurch wanted me to pay for the experience?! Now I’ve spent an amazing amount of money on this trip (I’m sure) so another couple of dollars for parking really wasn’t an issue but it was just the principal of it all, there really was no reason why I couldn’t walk another couple of blocks and park for free, so I did.

The art market was interesting; it seemed like a much smaller and much calmer version of Covent Garden, lovely. I think that’s probably one of the things that I do really like about NZ, it’s very familiar as well as being very different but it’s also much calmer and much more relaxed than anywhere at home. Each time I come into a city though I do get a little bit of a culture shock but once I see how small the cities really are I soon relax into it all!





I'm not sure if it was me or just the angle of the pic but the cathedral is actually straight!







Something I really fancied doing while I was here was travelling, either by car or by tranz-alpine train, from Christchurch to Greymouth via Arthurs Pass. The scenery is meant to be breathtaking so I was really keen to go but when exactly I thought I was going to do this trip was anyone’s guess. The original plan was to do it by train yesterday morning, well that never happened. Plan B was to drive there this afternoon, but I was still looking around Christchurch and time was ticking by. It’s a 153 km drive to Arthurs Pass village which MSN maps said I could do in 1.25 mins! I did briefly toy with the idea of chancing my arm and getting up early in the morning and heading up there but you just know that that plan was only headed for trouble! I’d like to see my chances of explaining my missed flight due to taking in the scenery to the airline, my family and work!!

In the end, at the very last minute, I headed out of town at 5pm. This was on the day before I fly out of NZ, I haven’t packed, I haven’t cleared the car out and already I’m pretty tired. Now all I have is a 300 km round trip to do just for some scenery, but that’s ok because MSN say it’s only going to take just under 3 hours! In hindsight, it seems that MSN don’t take into consideration winding roads, sheer drops and other cars. Fortunately what they also don’t take into consideration is my desire to flaunt the local speed limits and live life on the edge!! (Just kidding!). It took 2 hours to get there and for the last 100 km (!) I really was wondering, what am I doing and really is it worth it. But I can honestly say it was, the scenery was breathtaking, just like everyone says, even when you’re bypassing it at 150 kmph (!). No really I did slow and even stop for the good bits, it was lovely.



Arthurs Pass


I had left Christchurch in the afternoon when it was still very lovely and warm and I was dressed in a mini skirt and a vest top. I arrived at Arthurs Pass village at 7 pm, it was a lot higher and FREEZING. So I just visited the local services, cause as I said never pass up the opportunity, before I jumped back in the car put on the heating and headed back to Christchurch,.

I made it back to Christchurch for 9pm with just enough time to eat, pack my bag (kinda) and catch up on my blog.

I’ve had a fantastic 6 weeks in NZ, loving absolutely every minute of it and every experience I’ve had :-)

What I have come to the conclusion about though is that NZ isn’t that different from home in some ways but so very different in many others.

As far as driving is concerned (one of my biggest bug bares), drivers don’t let you out when you’re driving, or let you walk when you want to cross, or wait for you when you’re making a manoeuvre but then to be fair there aren’t very many cars on the road so really those issues aren’t actually real issues! Life is slower here which is lovely especially when living in the south of England, it’s a pace of life I could get used to. And as far as sheep are concerned, where are they again???

Now all I need to do is get through tomorrows flight home, by all accounts for the majority of the trip I’m going to be going back in time while slowly going forwards getting into UK seemingly 15 hours after leaving NZ, the reality being though that the flight is going to take around 30 hours!!

And on that note I’ll see you all soon.