A Day as a Tourist in Christchurch

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What a great day. It seems that traveling alone is as good as some say. You do tend to meet people and connect, albeit for a day.

I must first mention that after a lot of thinking about it I didn't go into the city centre area of Christchurch this morning to have a look at the damage the earthquake did. I really wanted to go and see what it's like but after thinking about it, and considering that I hadn't seen it prior, I felt that it wasn't right to go and see the damage, especially as a tourist. Goulish somehow and disrespectful to the locals. So, I have a new goal now - to see the city of Christchurch when it's been rebuilt 😊

The morning started hesitantly, as there had been a tremor during the night and everyone was a little rattled by it. The owners of the guesthouse have lost 2 of their chimneys now and are not sure how much more they can take. It's like they're tentative about the future cos they just don't know what's going to happen. And for those whose livelihoods are here in Christchurch it's not so easy to just pick up and go. It's a really dreadful situation and my heart goes out to them.

After a nice Milo this morning I had to decide what to do. The difficult thing I found today is that without a car it is very difficult to get around and to work out the public transport system so it's hard to know how to get anywhere, especially considering that many services have been closed due to the earthquake, so I went back to my room and studied the brochures.... they were no help at all! I wanted to go to the Antartic Centre but it was all the way out near the airport. So, I decided to just get to a bus and ask for help.

When I was leaving the guest house, I bumped into a fellow guest (M) who was going to the same place. So, we decided to go together. M has been in Christchurch for 5 days so knows that lay of the land a bit better than me so he knew what bus to catch & where from. Yay. He told me that it was just down the road a bit...A BIT?? Well, about 30 minutes later and a couple fo lungs we finally found the right stop, and the right bus. Hooray! I gratefully crashed into the seat huffing and puffing like I'd run a marathon.

We arrived at the airport and we're told to follow the "little blue feet" painted on the pavement and we'll get to the International Antarctic Centre. Well, the little blue feet were quite eratic and stopped in avarious places along the way. Good thing that M & I had our heads on our shoulders and worked out how to get there without the little blue feet! Another (not a) 5 minute walk! I'll be trim & fit when I get home......hahahaha. Not likely eh?

Anyway, we got to where we wanted which when traveling OS is a mean feat in itself. To get in to the centre cost NZ$65 which I thought was a bit rich, but I must commend them on their ability to come up with creative ways to give their guests value for money, as follows;
1. Prerecorded I-guides - brilliant for those of us who know NOTHING about the Antarctica.
2. A Hagglund ride!! I know right! What is a Hagglund?? It's one of those big caterpillar things. It went up hills and down into 3 meters of water and clung onto the sided of the hill like a real caterpillar! Scary as, but fantastic!
3. NZ Penguin encounter - they are so cute (smelly though) and it was lovely to see them in real life as they are not something I come across on a regular basis.
4. 4D Extreme Antarctica Theatre experience - do you know what the '4' in 4D means? It means that your seat vibrates and rocks and crashes (cos we were on an Antarctic explorer of course!)
5. Recreated storm conditions at the Antartic where it gets down to -18c with wind speeds of up to 46km/hr.

After the International Antarctic Centre we decided to go to Willowbank Wildlife PArk in the hope of finding a real live Kiwi! The shuttle from the airport got us there in about 10 minutes. What a great place! Will tell you more about it later as I only have limited internet atm and want to upload the pics from this morning on the Tranzalpine to Greymouth. So will sign off from this blog and will see you on the next 😊

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