New Zealand Bound

Christchurch, Monday 15 - Friday 19 May

Monday

We arose at 04:30 this morning to be checked-in at Sydney Airport for the 08:20 flight to Christchurch. The flight was pleasant enough and in seemingly no time at all we were landing in country number 8 on our itinerary, New Zealand.

Another dose of deja-vu here; New Zealand is as scrupulous as Australia as regards what can and can't be brought into the country. We watched in horror/fascination as fellow travellers were forced to unpack their belongings, but this revealed bags and bags full of potential 'contraband' food items in some cases. We (honestly) declared that we were not carrying any food and were thankfully spared the ignominy of having our hastily packed backpacks disembowelled for all to see. I smugly thought we were safely through Immigration until an officer asked to inspect my shoes; they were filthy - we'd done a lot of walking in Oz - and so I had to hand them over to be washed!

We picked up our shiny 4x4 (a Toyota Rav4) outside the airport, and headed to our hostel in downtown Christchurch. Having stayed in some relatively grotty hostels over the last 5 months, this one (The Old Countryhouse) was a breath of fresh air.

Heading out in the evening, we decided to try out our first New Zealand hostelry, an English-style pub called 'The Bard on Avon'. Expectations were decidedly low after Australia, and so we were pleasantly surprised to find great beer, terrific pub-grub, a roaring fire and, oddly, a 'Skegness is so Bracing' poster on the wall!

Central Christchurch

Tuesday

At once comfortable with our surroundings, and still feeling pretty campervan/jet-lagged we opted for a day of relaxation today. In town,we booked tickets for the next day's TranzAlpine train journey and, feeling the cold, splashed out on some new winter coats. Then after my cheapest ($5 NZ) and fastest haircut ever - about 5 minutes , I headed off to find an internet cafe in order to do some much needed catching-up on this blog, whilst Sharon returned to the hostel to chill out.
Not fancying a walk back into town this evening, we grabbed a meal from a nearby Chinese takeaway; and here we discovered for the first time that New Zealanders are generally VERY generous with their food portions!

Wednesday

Arriving on New Zealand's South Island, you are unable to avoid the sight of surrounding snow-capped mountains; in fact, wherever you are in the country you tend to be confronted by perfect Christmas card-worthy vistas. The whole place is staggeringly beautiful. Thus, the 8-hour return journey from Christchurch to Greymouth via Arthur's Pass took our breath away - sometimes literally, since the small open-air viewing platform on the train was subject to vicious freezing winds. But here's a taster of what we saw:

Thinking we'd escaped the tribulations of years of commuting on the UK's hopeless railways, we were amused when one of the locomotives failed on the TranzAlpine train and was replaced by a unit hastily borrowed from a coal train. This hiccup aside, we had a fantastic day. As I write this though, the TranzAlpine company is looking for a buyer to run this very special train service.

Thursday

Bearing in mind that we are here at the very end of Autumn, the weather has been terrific; crisp, clear, cold sunny days. What better way to spend a day then, than go for a walk on the volcano that overlooks Christchurch. And if there's a cable-car (the Christchurch Gondola) to take you up there...

After the obligatory breakfast at the top, we took a quick one-hour walk heading north-westerly on the crater rim. After this warm-up, we headed back in the opposite direction for a three-and-a-half hour walk in the sunshine, taking in views of Christchurch, Littleton Harbour and the Banks Peninsular and disturbing the odd hill-dwelling cow.

Feeling virtuous after our day's walking, we ate out this evening at one of the many varied eateries along Oxford Terrace most of which are worth a look if you fancy relaxing the purse strings a bit.

Friday

Time to leave lovely Christchurch for our next destination, Lake Tekapo, but not before spending the morning taking a tram-ride around the city to take in one or two sites of interest: