Chilling in Christchurch

Health update: I feel fine! Lung doesn’t feel collapsed and blood doesn’t feel clotty. But I’m thinking I should play it safe and continue to not exercise, like the doctor ordered.

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Back to New Zealand (my gosh that was a long time ago). So I left Kaikoura on the Coastal Pacific and had a nice, peaceful trip to Christchurch, with excellent views of the ocean and mountains. Once in Christchurch I caught a SuperShuttle to The Dorset House hostel, which was excellent. I was in a 5-person dorm but it was HUGE. None of the beds were lofted, so everyone had their own nightstand, lamp, outlets, and general floor space. It was very nice, and in general the hostel was very spacious and new.

The Cathedral with scaffolding and piles of rubble.

The next morning (9/27) I did my own walking tour of Christchurch. I passed by a Farmer’s market and grabbed some kind of egg and bacon buttie (sandwich), and then headed to the Cathedral. In 2011 much of Christchurch was destroyed by a huge earthquake, and the Cathedral was one of the buildings that was hit hard. However, controversy over whether to demolish and rebuild it or attempt to restore it means that nothing has actually happened and the building is surrounded by fences and still in shambles. It’s a grim reminder of the tragedy. However, the earthquake also inspired some interesting innovations, including the Cardboard Cathedral and the container mall. The Cardboard Cathedral is exactly what it sounds like – a temporary Cathedral made primarily of cardboard. Okay it’s a bit sturdier than it sounds – I was imagining an old cardboard box that could fit three children if they were lucky. The building’s support beams are all massive cardboard tubing, and other features are also made of cardboard/paper products. It’s pretty cool to see in person.

The inside of the Cardboard Cathedral!

The container mall is also exactly what it sounds like – an outdoor mall where the shops are all contained within shipping containers. After the earthquake, people didn’t want to wait for demolition and construction of entirely new buildings, so they chose the much faster option of turning shipping containers into storefronts. Clothing stores, cafes, restaurants, bookstores… each of them the size of only one or two shipping containers with windows and doors added on. It started as only a few shops, but I think now it’s up to something like 50 shops. Very creative way to get back on your feet while waiting for the major construction to happen (four years later and half of the city is still a giant construction project).

After a ton of walking I was fortunate enough to find another scrumptious iced mocha, with chocolate drizzled on the inside of a bottle. So good! (I crave a good iced mocha at least once a week. New Zealand may have ruined me.) That restaurant was right across from the Canterbury Museum, so I went inside and got to check out some cool exhibits, including a huge natural history section with lots of bird mounts, an Antarctic section with the history of Antarctic expeditions, and a temporary one on light and eyesight tricks. It was pretty cool AND free!

I went back to my hostel early to plan for the next day and make some reservations, and while I was in the lounge Harry and Etienne walked in! They had both stayed elsewhere the night before because my hostel was full, but that night Etienne was staying there. We had a fun evening sharing beers, catching up, and playing pool. It was a relaxing evening in, but we had a blast.

The next day (9/28) I made a trip out to the International Antarctic Centre. Apparently many of the flights to Antarctica leave from Christchurch, so they have a whole place dedicated to the history of expeditions, technology, and wildlife. If you’re ever in Christchurch I highly recommend stopping here. It’s even right next to the airport, so you can do it on a couple hour layover! Anyways, there were so many cool things. There was a cold room where you could experience an Antarctic blizzard where the temperature dropped to -18C and the wind made your face burn (they provide you with parkas). They also had a penguin exhibit for injured penguins. I showed up at feeding time so I got to see the little cuties waddling around for fish. There was a 4D movie (they sprayed water and blew bubbles at you), another 2D movie, and a super awesome Hagglund ride! Hagglunds are the vehicles that they use in Antarctica. They have the same type of track/conveyer belt movement system as tanks (what is that called??). This allows them to go across crevasses that are up to like 1-2m wide (I think? I don’t really remember details at this point). They are also waterproof and can tackle some pretty deep water (they float eventually but also have small motors on them to help with this). I thought the ride was going to be some silly kid thing, like a little train ride at the zoo. Boy was I wrong! This was more like a tame roller coaster. They were showing off the speed and maneuverability of the thing by flying around corners and shooting over hills (with crevasses at the top) and down into water-filled ditches. Even with our seatbelts and hand holds we were sliding all over. It was fantastic!

I had perfectly timed out my day to line up with the city bus schedule, so I left the museum and walked a few blocks to the bus station. There was some minor construction in the area, so some of the curb was blocked off, but while I was standing there a different bus line approached and the driver slowed down while signaling to me to ask if I needed his bus. I shook my head no and he continued on, so I was satisfied and figured it wouldn’t be a problem for my bus to stop. However, when I saw him approaching I flagged him down and he just pointed down the road and kept going. He didn’t stop at my stop, and he didn’t even stop 30 meters down the road where the construction ended – he went to the NEXT stop which was over half a mile away, easy. I was standing there in my ankle brace thinking “you have got to be kidding me” and started speed walking to the next stop where I saw the driver was clearly waiting for me. He was probably expecting me to run to meet him, but I wasn’t about to do something stupid and injure my ankle worse, so I stuck with speed walking. That was still pretty tiring, and it was taking a long time considering the distance. After several minutes, right around when I reached the halfway point, I saw the driver take off. Of course.

Well I figured I could stand around and wait 40 minutes for the next bus, or I could walk into the city and check out one of the many public gardens along the way. That was also exhausting as it was several miles that I ended up walking. But the gardens were nice and they had some adorable ducklings hanging out. From there I caught a different bus to the Botanic Gardens by the Canterbury Museum. I ate a nice dinner outside before heading back to the hostel. I was fruitlessly trying to dial Harry’s number on the hostel phone (I am incapable of figuring out how to dial foreign numbers) when I got chatting with a new girl – Caroline. She had just arrived from the UK and was trying to get the internet to work, so we sat there trying to help each other. Eventually we were both successful and I contacted Harry and Etienne about hanging out again, so I introduced them to Caroline and we all had another fun evening in.

Etienne, Harry, Caroline, and me right after seeing Akaroa

The next morning (9/29) I had booked a trip to Akaroa, which is the little nub of land sticking off the east side of the south island. It’s absolutely gorgeous with the hills and the harbors. Coincidentally Caroline had booked her own activities in Akaroa for the same day, so I canceled my bus trip and got a ride with her instead (she rented a car). Harry and Etienne had nothing planned, so they also tagged along! It took a couple hours to get there on a beautiful road, and Caroline’s crazy driving made it that much more interesting. She was zooming around corners and driving much more confidently on the left side than any of the rest of us would have, so the three of us alternated between clenching the door handles and giggling. When we went over the last big hill before descending into the main town we got our first view of the harbor and it was stunning! There were exclamations from four different countries. “Hot dog!” “Oh la vache!” “F*ck me” “Bloody hell!” Can you match the phrase with the right countryman? Immediately after seeing the view Caroline pulled over so we could take pictures. It was stunning!

From there we continued into town and saw Caroline off on her cruise to swim with dolphins. The rest of us walked along the shore and had a picnic at a nice overlook by a lighthouse. It was here that I tried my very first golden kiwi – delicious!! Thanks for the tip, Harry! The boys were great – I did some casual birding while we were wandering around and I pointed out the birds that I saw. They borrowed my binoculars and Harry got really into it. He was checking out oystercatchers and trying to spot the different species. Quite fun! We stopped in a fudge shop along the waterfront (Etienne had never had fudge) and continued our way around. There wasn’t much to do in such a small place if you weren’t paying for some kind of expensive boat tour, but we were just having a relaxing and cheap outing. Once Caroline got back she drove us up into the hills so we could get some views looking down to the harbor. It was incredible. After that we waited around in town for our bus back to Christchurch. Caroline was spending the night in Akaroa so we couldn’t get a ride back with her, but the bus was fine. The driver was spouting off facts for a solid hour, so that was a little annoying, but otherwise it was a nice break after a day of wandering around. We had a couple short stops – one at a wine and cheese shop that the driver obviously had some kind of partnership with, and one for a quick photo op at … some kind of scenery that we were all kind of dozing during the explanation of.

When we got back to our hostel the boys said they were going to go pick up some dinner things and we would have a little group dinner on our last night! They didn’t want to make me walk anymore, so they went to get the food while I packed up most of my things in preparation for leaving the next morning. I poked my head into the kitchen after my shower and saw Etienne preparing food, but he refused my offer to help and sent me downstairs to hang out with Harry. We met a brother and sister who just showed up and were really chatty (the brother more so than the sister), so we hung out in the lounge with them for a while. Turns out the guy knew some people in Canberra, so he gave me his contact info so I could potentially meet some new people upon arriving in Australia! Etienne came and got us for dinner so we had an adorable group dinner. He made a big salady thing with rice, corn, tomatoes, and tuna fish, and we had a sorry-excuse-for-French-bread since nothing that’s not in France is ever going to meet French standards, haha! (I’m not a big fan of tuna, but when someone makes it for me for a group dinner you can bet I’ll eat it. I put generic “salad cream” on it and it was good.) We spent our last evening together chatting with the brother and sister in the lounge, and then said our goodbyes and went our separate ways. Of course Harry and Etienne were both super sweet and sent me goodbye messages before I left for my bus to Queenstown the next morning. Fortunately we still keep in touch, but I definitely miss hanging out with them. We had some fun times in Kaikoura and Christchurch!

Me and the boys :)