Semester Break Holiday: Off to Christchurch, New Zealand!

Hello Everyone!!

I thought I might take some time to share some photos and stories with you about my mid-year holiday trip to New Zealand!! As I was planning on going to New Zealand at the early part of July for an APEC conference (more on that in a separate post), I decided to build in a few days before the conference to explore and find my way around Christchurch, the "international gateway to the South Island"! I had a wonderful couple of days and got to meet heaps of very interesting people while traveling.

I arrived in Christchurch at 11:30pm on Thursday night, but I didn't make it to the hostel until 1:00am! If there is one thing I can say about NZ, it's that their Customs/Immigration Department are just absolutely meticulous with everything that comes in and out of the country :). Though it was a bit frustrating to stand in line for so long, I appreciate how thorough they can be to protect their borders.

Prior to arriving in New Zealand, I actually got into contact with the Coptic priest in Christchurch, Father Sourial. So the morning after I arrived, Father Sourial picked me up and took me over to the church for a morning liturgy. After we finished and had some lunch, he introduced me to Linda, Diana, and Youstina, three girls from the church. They kindly volunteered to take me around Christchurch and tell me a bit about the history of NZ, the culture, etc. It was fantastic, I felt like I had three personal tourguides who have now become some really good friends of mine!! We had a wonderful time and they showed me places such as the great landscape of Kashmir, Cathedral Square and the Arts Precinct, and the wonderful beach area around Sumner. We even had a chance to have some authentic "fish n' chips" at the beach as we watched the great sunset.

Something that you will notice from my photos on this entry is the absolute wonder and beauty of the landscape all around New Zealand. I was in awe at just how beautiful the area was and how amazing the drives can be. Christchurch, as it is an old English town, is very small (around 350,000) and very flat. It's actually a unique characteristic, given the surrounding Alps mountains, the rolling hills of the Banks Peninsula, and of course the amazing snow hotspots in Queenstown. But what a great city: you could walk/navigate your way from one end to the other in just about 15 minutes!! It made for great travel :)

Anyways, following the day of exploring Christchurch with friends, I spent the majority of my second day on my own, traveling to some of the recommended sites of the city. I took a tour of the Cathedral which is central to the City Square, and I also went to the Antarctic Centre. This centre is pretty unique to NZ, as it's the major stopping point for all travelers headed down to Antarctica. It was really educational about the history and the current conditions of Antarctica, as well as some simulated "snow storms" which were meant to let you experience what a snow storm would be like in Antarctica--let me just say one word to describe this: COOOOLD!!

Prior to the start of my conference, I also arranged to meet up with a Rotary club while I was in Christchurch. However, what I got was even better: I had the privilege to stay with a Rotarian and his family for two nights of my stay! I stayed with Mike Godber and his wife and two daughters, Corrine and Nicole. This was one of the great highlights of my trip. I was amazed at the generosity of Rotarians, as I told them I was coming for a few days of siteseeing and Mike e-mailed me and offered to host me while I was in NZ. His family was so kind and I had such a wonderful time getting to know them and share stories about our cultures/traditions/education/etc. As we first gathered for dinner, I had a great chance to talk with everyone in the family about how the USA is perceived in NZ, and what I found was that because of its strong opposition to any nuclear power, Kiwis (New Zealanders) felt a bit more negative to the US than the Aussies feel. This was really interesting for me to see and to hear that with a change in leadership in the USA elections, the feelings might change between Kiwis and Americans.

Finally, as a last bit of travel before the APEC conference, I met up with the coordinator of the APEC program, David Ward. As we came a few days early to the conference, we had the afternoon of one day free so David drove me to see the old French town that borders Christchurch, known as Akaroa. Though it was so breathtaking and very beautiful, it took forever to get to the city, as we had to basically travel through the mountains for just about an hour. I learned on that trip that by staring at the road as it twists and turns, you can actually begin to feel quite motion sick! But no worries, I made it there without any troubles, but on the way home, I ended up reading the map for more of a diversion :)

Well I hope you enjoy some of the pictures that I had an opportunity to take. It's by no means all of the pictures I took, but I hope they can tell the story of what a great trip I had in Christchurch!! Stay tuned for my report on the APEC conference!

Cheers,

Cindy

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