New Zealand: Phase One

We flew out of exciting Canberra at around 2pm on the Third of April after a day of running about, cleaning, organising, double and triple checking that everything was switched off. Even after doing this we realised two minutes down the road that I didn't put the fish cakes in the freezer. That would have been a sexy surprise upon our return.

After stuffing around in Sydney airport trying to find the right terminal we managed to get onto our flight to Christchurch. Thankfully we were flying Virgin across to NZ, because I don't think I could have coped with two and a half hours of pompous, stiff, characterless flight attendants after being stuffed around in pompous, stiff, characterless Sydney. The Virgin people were happy, funny and highly entertaining, and their funny accents were a great segue to what was going to be a fantastic two weeks in New Zealand - home of the funny accent.

After a couple of ginantonics and a good couple of hours of Mars Volta I was ready for a holiday. And my six foot four frame was ready to climb out of my little chair like a huntsman would climb out of a shower drain - all legs and crinkles.

After all of the fun and frivolity of customs and the courtesy bus we made it to our little room and into bed. Mmmmm sleep.

We awoke to an overcast day, mind you it was nice to see some clouds in the air. I asked the girl at the hotel reception what the forecast was and she said 'miserable' to which I replied 'fantastic!' She gave me the 'you are a tool' look and went back to chewing her gum. Our little room was situated just off Cathedral Square - in the centre of the oldy bit of Christchurch. Below us the touristy tram stopped, also below us was our Spacestation where we were to pick up out Spaceship for our travels around NZ. The photo below was taken from in front of the Spacestation, our room is up to the right and you can make out the tram tracks below the Kiwi Egg Cuckoo Clock. Note the lady wearing the red jumper.
We hopped on the tram for a tour of the city - essentially the centre with all of the oldy bits. Christchurch feels just like England with fantastic old Gothic revivalist architecture. The Avon river meanders through the centre of town - in fact I think this river should be used in dictionaries to describe the word 'meander'. I have never seen anything as meandery as the Avon. After taking a walk around the highlights of Christchurch according to our trusty Lonely Planet we went for a punt. A punt on the Avon, not the Christchurch Casino. Geez.

As you can see the punt was set up for a number of people, however those people were absent at the time. The punt was a great way to get into the relaxed mode necessary for a good holiday, the water was clear, the surrounds of the botanic gardens were tranquil and green and the little native black ducks (we call them Kody ducks in honour of our dog Kody) went quack.
To the left is a duck. To the right is our punt. Note the absent people.







After our relaxing little ride up and down the Avon I was completely taken with the town. So taken I started to say words like 'ye olde', 'shoppe' and 'lager'.

We said goodbye to our absent friends from the punt and wandered off to The Belgian Beer Cafe for some lunch. Beer as an accompanying beverage was a distinct possibility. I ordered a mixed plate of cold meats and pickles and a glass of Kriek (it was a beer made using cherries in some part of the process and was delicious - kind of like a beer for kids) and Stacey got a serve of very yummy chips. Our waiter was a grumpy Irish bloke.

After lunch we wandered through Christchurch on a bit more of an explore and noted a few more things. We were lucky enough to see the Wizard of Christchurch, a crazy old university lecturer that wears a wizard hat and rants strange philosophy and stories to people. People in New Zealand drive silly cars.We made it back to our little room and I wandered off to buy some beers. Beer in NZ is much cheaper than in Oz, which is fantastic. I bought 12 cans for the price of a six pack back here. After I got back we wandered off to the casino for our free drink (we were given one each with the hotel room). We didn't punt.

Dinner was Russian food at a restaurant called Red Square. It was very nice, and we supped to the sound of Madonna, which seemed strangely appropriate for a Russian restaurant, if not a bit loud for my liking. Stacey had a chicken kiev and I had some meat and rice wrapped in cabbage.

We meandered back to our little room and checked under the bed before going to sleep.