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.
--------------------
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.
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| The Cathedral with scaffolding and piles of rubble. |
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| 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.
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.
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| Etienne, Harry, Caroline, and me right after seeing Akaroa |
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!
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| Me and the boys :) |
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