For the Benefit of Mr Kite

Firstly, apologies. I know that you are all hanging on the next installment of our adventures, but a number of factors has influenced by lack of blogging (namely, not being anywhere near blogging appratus).

 

Christchurch was the first of the big cities that we're visiting on this trip. To get there, we took the Tranz Alpine train from Greymouth. This train trip is one of the best in the world as it crosses the Alps through some amazing scenery. Although I fell asleep for some of it, the bits I saw were good. At one stage we passed through an 8km long tunnel - so for that part the scenery was very unexciting.

 

Once we got into the Big Smoke, one of our first jobs was to find somewhere to eat. We arrived on at Saturday night as we assumed that it being Saturday there would be lots of people around. Wrong. We found a nice Indian place as well as a bar that sold food, which we resolved to eat at the next day but alas, it was closed when we went back (if anyone is in Christchurch, please let us know what The Bicycle Thief is like). The Indian place was good. Quite spicy food, prompt service etc.

 

The next day, we thought we would explore the city. Apparently, we were the only ones who had this strange idea because again, there was hardly anyone about. After an hour or so walking around, we came across people, lots of the them heading towards us. We figured we must be heading in the right direction for something interesting so we kept going. We ended up at the Arts Centre Markets. They were good, but small and a bit touristy. There was some good things there like a guy who encases small objects in plastic makes them into jewelery (braclets etc). My favourites were the braclets made out of licqourice allsorts. We had lunch and wandered around some more before heading back to the hostel for napping and organising onward accomodation. That night for dinner we had tapas-style food which was also good.

 

After Christchurch we headed to Kaikoura, a little seaside town that is blessed with all sorts of marine life. It was here that I had one of the highlights of the trip - I went swimming with seals. You can go swimming with dolphins but there this a two month waiting list and the are quite flickle so you may not actually be swimming with them so very long or even not at all. My seal swimming trip had just two people in it which was good as we got more time in the water. To go swimming with the seals, you need to wear a full wetsuit as it's freezing but it's well worth it. The seals are very inquisitive, and will come up to you and see what you're all about. The younger ones will play as well, but I didn't see any of them. Right at the end of the trip, our guide told me to swim over and have one last look at a seal in the water that was quite near. As I started to swim up to it, it started to swim towards me. I could have touched it, but chose not to as they are actually very large. We swam together for a bit then, it decided it wasn't actually all that interesting and turned around. It was all very exciting.

 

I should take the time to mention the place we stayed in at Kaikoura. It was called Dolphin Lodge and we had a really nice double room with ensuite. All was going well until about 2am that morning when the siren in the tower in the paddock next to us went off - loudly. We woke up (well Tom woke up, I was strangely already awake), put on clothes and went outside. After what seemed like forever, it stopped. Nobody else there knew what it was, I take a guess that it was a fire siren as soon after it started we heard sirens of the fire engine variety. The siren went off again in the morning as we were about to leave and again, there were fire engines.

 

Our last bus trip on our journey was from Kaikoura to Picton from where we would be catching the ferry to Wellington. I was very pleased when that trip was over - I now have an intense dislike of buses. At Picton we boarded our ferry 'Pride of Cherboug' - sorry, it was actually called Kaitikia which is Maori for challenge. I can only assume it was a challenge getting it to New Zealand as it would have to have been sailed. I wondered if this ferry was the same one I caught across the English Channel however I can't remember enough about that trip to know the answer to that question. The trip across was calm. I had a nice nap until Tomas woke me up to nap in what he though were better surrounds. He was wrong and I was grumpy. I was quite comfortably contourted in my chair in the 'Recliner Lounge' and found the Irish Bar where I could lie down, both cold and noisy. Tom was happy because he was watching the cricket that was until I told him of what I thought of my surrounds then he was grumpy.

 

It was windy when we arrived in Wellington. Very windy. I almost got blown over as I wasn't expecting the wind. Tom laughed - not so grumpy anymore now that Amanda is struggling to stand in the gale force winds. Wellington is much more of a big city than Christchurch. It has people. After a brief tour of the city and a ride on the cable car. We had dinner at a very funky establishment called Chow. Highly recommended.

 

On our second day in Wellington we started off by visiting Te Papa, the Museum of New Zealand. It was really good, we didn't get to see everything though. I wanted to see the exhibition on genetics but we ran out of time. Had lunch at Castro's another funky establishment that was on the other side of town to the museum so we got to see more of the city on the way. After lunch, shopping. Tom bought shoes, I tried too but they were all too big.

 

The next morning we picked up our rental car. A white Mazda 323 sedan. It has so many things our car doesn't. Central locking, four doors, power windows, intermittant whiper speed, pace and best of all, a radio. I am regretting not buying an FM transmitter for my ipod before we left as NZ radio has bad reception (it's all of the those mountains) and in general isn't very good. Tom is pleased because he can listen to the cricket on Radio Sport however, that's about as good as it gets here. Even the equivalent of Radio National doesn't stack up and don't even ask about the FM channel. It's either More FM which is just like every radio station in Australia or Christian radio playing "god-rocking beats". There is one thing we don't like about the car - it is an auto. We've gotten over this though.

 

Before I go want to say a few words about New Zealand drivers - they are crazy. Road rules have no meaning over here. The speed limit is optional. Overtaking is madatory if someone is going the speed limit or heaven-forbit below it. Overtaking lanes must be used when encountered regardless of the speed of the car in front. If you are a vehicle that can't exceed the speed limitas everyone else on the roads does then it is your duty to drive in the shoulder until all cars behind you have passed. Crazy overtaking occurs frequently and often without use of indicators. Indication is also optional at roundabouts. Finally, the bizzarist of all: If you are turning left into a street and a car in the opposite direction wants to turn into the same street then you have to give way to the other car. Think about this for a while. It makes no sense! This one is actually a road rule. Lonely Planet describes this as '...interpretation of the give way to the right rule to the extreme'.

 

Whilst I have been typing, Tomas has dutifully been preparing dinner. Now it is almost ready. Last thing for today though: Why are our calf muslces called calf muscles. What relation if any, do they have to cows. Dad, can you help here?

 

Hope everyone had a great Christmas, you will here about ours in the next blog from me. Happy New Year if I don't get around to blogging before then!