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Published: April 8th 2009
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Christchurch
View from John & Margrett's Nibby- How wonderful to have a base at John and Margaret's up on the hill overlooking the city of Christchurch. They have only been living there a few months and there were a couple of things around the house still to do so Matt spent one morning helping John put up his fence around the driveway while I lazed around the house. We popped into the centre and had a look around the art museum before heading to the shops to get some warmer clothes. We have finally given in to the fact that we are leaving summer behind us and moving swiftly into autumn. Not good when we only bought summer clothes with us!
We decided to take a trip to Arthur's pass for a few days as we had booked to watched NZ v India in a cricket one day international in Christchurch but had some spare time to kill. Arthur's pass is a pass running through the centre of the south Island connecting the east coast with the west coast. The Arthur's pass village itself is in a beautiful setting right in the middle of the mountains. We found a cool place to stay which was good
and cheap and arranged to do a day walk for the following day. The walk we chose was called Avalanche Peak. Before we left I was unaware just how difficult a climb it was going to be. We had to climb 1000m in 2.5km. After about an hour of incredibly steep climbing I was sure we must be nearly there only to be told by passers by that we were not even close to half way there! How was it possible!?! My legs were already giving me jip. We soldiered on and on and on until 3 hours after we set off we arrived at the top of the mountain and got spectacular panoramic views of the mountain range and a glacier off in the distance. We were greeted by the notoriously cheeky alpine parrot the Kea. They are not shy birds and if you leave your bag, shoes, coats, (anything really) unattended around them you can be sure to find it ripped to pieces by the Kea's razor sharp beaks. They kept us busy as they tried to peck at our bags as soon as our backs were turned. We spent about 30 minutes enjoying the playful Kea and
Akaroa
The Harbour taking in the views before we (reluctantly) headed back down to civilization. This was where the pain kicked in. Anyone who says it's easier going down hill than it is going up is seriously deluded! Oh the pain! Every step hurt. It didn't help that I bashed my knee on a rock coming down because my poor tired legs gave way under me. I was nearly in tears by the time we got down 3 hours later. I've never been so happy to be walking on flat ground as I was that day. The place we were staying in had a bath and I think I can safely say, it was the best bath I've EVER had!
The next day we headed further along the pass until we reached the rainy west coast. This area of New Zealand gets a lot of rain all year round giving it lush forests with a number of different ferns, mosses and shrubbery. It's a really lovely place if you can stand the rain and the forever blood thirsty sandfly. We stayed in Punakaiki which is famous for its pancake rocks and blow holes. After our mammoth climb the day before I struggled
Cricket
New Zealand Vs India with the 15 minute walk to the viewing platforms. Then I came across a couple of steps and it was curtains for me. My leg muscles were broken I was sure of it. Matt drove the 4 hours back to Christchurch and when we arrived we went round The Shorter's house for dinner. The Shorter's are family of the girl I travelled with 5 years ago and they really looked after us back then. We had a lovely evening with the family, it was really great to catch up after so long.
So finally, the day we had been waiting for, New Zealand black caps v India, cricket one day international. What a day for it, the sun had its hat on and so did we! It was so hot sitting in the stand we were glad to have our factor 30 with us. The atmosphere was great and some of the Indian fans had drums they were playing which was cool. I was wearing a black sun cap and Matt was wearing his India sun hat so we thought I only seemed right for me to support NZ and Matt to support India. We bet between ourselves that
Cricket
Nibby and the cricketers. the person who backed the losing team had to cook dinner for a week. Unfortunately for me India were on fire and the Black Caps just couldn't seem to catch up with their 393 runs so for the next week I was slaving away in the kitchen!
The next day we met up with some old family friends of my parents, The Wallace's. We enjoyed a great home cooked meal and my favourite pudding ever, the kiwi pavlova. It was good! It was now time to move on as we had done everything we wanted to do in Christchurch and our next destination was the beautiful Mount Cook National Park.
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