Little Britain

---

Our flight from Fiji to Auckland was delayed by an hour or so, but the rest of the trip went smoothly and we arrived in Christchurch and checked into our backpackers without any major hitches. Dan had to unpack her big backpack because she hadn’t declared her unused hiking boots and thre a bit of a strop about it but the guys working in security were nice enough to let it slide.

NZ was a bit of a culture shock to the system. I have never seen such well kitted out backpackers and the whole place looked clean, green and friendly. Even the immigration guys were nice (and told us which bars to go to and places of interest)- that’s got to be a world first, surely? Christchurch reminded me so much of a little English town. In fact it could be Bolton town centre transplanted on the other side of the world, but replace town hall with a cathedral. A cathedral that smaller than Bolton Town Hall actually, but trams running in the streets, and instead of teenage chavs pushing babie sin prams, Christchurch has a street market on Saturdays and local performers (Irish dancing, musicians etc). It’s a pretty place, but just like Bolton, its bloody freezing. Now you’d think given its supposed to be summer, we’d be a warmish climate wouldn’t you? But not, its just plain freezing. It was clear blue skies when we arrived, so you could sunburn in 10 minutes, but you’d only get burnt on your face because you’d be covered up in at least a jumper at the same time. And still shivering. Ruth warned me that it gets cold on the South Island (having spent her elective here this time last year) so at least I had my kayaking jacket and a hoodie. Poor Dan however was freezing and dreaming of shopping for thick woolly jumpers and a jacket, and the girls were soon to arrive and join her in these dreams. Unfortunately we were so busy exploring and sorting out our plans for NZ that I don’t think anybody actually got around to do any shopping.

The girls (Veg, Kathy, Maria and Arj) were flying and staying in the same hostel as us. We didn’t know it at the time but Becky and Gillian were also staying in the same hostel, so along with Lisa and Rose who met up with us that evening, we had a bit of a catching up session and a girl’s night out. Welcome to civilisation. We spent the next few days in Christchurch, seeing the town, the arts centre and also making a day trip down to Akaroa. Akaroa was pretty much a dream come true for me- I got to swim with dolphins. Yep we got up close and personal with the wee critters- little Hector dolphins that are only found in around these waters. And bloody cold waters it was too, even with 12mm wetsuits. Visibility wasn’t brilliant but you were so close to the dolphins that you couldn’t fail to not see them swim around you.

We all went our separate ways from Christchurch, with Veg, Arj and Maria heading off to Queenstown the day we went to Akaroa, and Dan and Jos heading north that evening. Kathy and I headed up to Nelson the following day on the Intercity bus and then on to Abel Tasman where we spent the day sea kayaking and trekking in the beautiful national park there. Stopped off at Pancake Rocks, where lots of tides cross and at high tide you get an explosion of water gushing up between the rocks like geysers. We didn’t see it at high tide but even then it looked pretty cool. Stopped at jade factories etc en route and then got to Franz Josef.

---