Christchurch

Some tourists enjoying an afternoon punt in the aptly named "garden city"

We left Vancouver on Thursday, November 11, and we arrived in Christchurch on the morning of Saturday, November 13. Because of the time change we did not, in fact, spend 2 days on the plane, but instead about 14 hours, most of which we slept through. We are staying at a great little backpackers hostel called “Kiwi Basecamp” – it has 2 kitchens, a big deck, bikes you can use (complete with stylish horse riding helmets!),  a little herb garden, and some pretty cool people. So far we have mostly been getting ourselves set up here – we’ve gotten a phone, applied for our working numbers, set up a bank account, picked up the last few items we needed, and… drum roll please… we’ve bought a car! Here is what our experience of New Zealand has been like so far:

The Hostel

We really lucked out here. There are a lot of people who have been around for quite a while (living at the hostel indefinitely) – so we’ve met and gotten to know a lot of interesting people from all of the world. A lot of the people here have actually been in Australia for the past few years, and when their visas ran out there, they got ones for New Zealand to be able to extend their stay in Oceania. Karson from Taiwan picked us up from the airport – he is working at the hostel in the mornings for his stay, and just got back from biking around Australia. Ivan from Mexico is also working for his stay at the hostel, and he has been a wealth of information for which bank to go to, what is good to see / do in the city, and how to navigate our way around the working visa process. Phillip and Yaneck from Germany came from Thailand and Australia before coming to New Zealand, and are currently attempting to get skilled at fire stick dancing, before introducing the actual fire. Marcus from Sweden spent 2 years working on farms in Australia before coming to New Zealand, he is currently trying to improve his guitar skills and buy a small amp so that he can busk for his stay for a while longer. Robert from Germany is quite possibly one of the most ridiculous and funny characters I have met in a long time, and makes us laugh on a regular basis without even meaning to. His current nickname is “pinky pie” – which is the “my little pony” character he received after completing an online personality quiz. He is starting to enjoy the name. Frances from Ireland organizes big hostel parties in the lobby some nights, and has introduced us to “goon” wine, which is $15 NZ dollars for 3 litres, comes in a plastic bag (no box) with a spout, and is absolutely delicious. There are also, of course, many transient hostel goers as well, and our stay here has been (and will continue to be) a blast because of the interesting and eclectic groups of people we have met.

 

Marcus serenading the German ladies in the evening

Hagley Park / the Christchurch Botanical Gardens

These are just a five minute walk from the hostel and absolutely beautiful. They are very well maintained with huge trees, colourful flowers, lots of ducks / birds, streams, and paths. We spent an afternoon exploring this park, and then later in the week we went on a 2 hour-long walk here by accident, trying to find the mall where Brent could buy sandals. It was a very gratifying wild goose chase. 

Sitting in one of the huge trees in Hagley Park

Palm Trees

There is no zoom on this shot - these ducks just came to check out what we were up to

The Avon River, which runs through Christchurch

On our walk to find sandals - Brent appears disgruntled at not finding the mall

Sumner Beach

This is the nicest beach area around Christchurch, and it is NICE. It has long stretches of white sand, beautiful weather most of the time (although when we went it was quite cloudy), a hillside with interesting and gorgeous houses right next to it, and a really cool set of caves you can explore. We spent an afternoon there reading and soaking up the sun, and I came back with a bit of a sunburn (in November! Jealous?) We also went up the hillside a while to look out over the little community of Sumner, where the sheep graze and the views are spectacular. 

Some of the houses on the hill overlooking Sumner beach

The beach, with fog rolling in

on the drive up the hill overlooking the community of Sumner

Our Car

We picked out the car that we wanted on our 2^nd day in New Zealand. It is a forest green Subaru Legacy, and we christened her “Leonardo,” after the ninja turtles (she’s a green hatchback!) The back seats fold down into the perfect amount of space for a sleeping area and it gets pretty good mileage on the road. Plus it only has 185 000 clicks on it (quite a bit fewer than many of the other cars at the backpackers car market) and a snazzy sound system. We are quite pleased with Leonardo, she’s a beaut.

Brent and Leonardo