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Published: August 8th 2007
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Hello, long time no blog; you will see exactly why I have written nothing for so long when you read about New Zealand. In order to try and get this amazing journey down on paper I'm going to have to miss out the two weeks prior to NZ that I spent in Sydney but I will try and come back to that as I would love to get that stuff down too.
Having taken a ridiculously early taxi from the friend we were staying with in Sydney to the airport, we suffered a small delay and much hanging about before following the same boring flight customs routine again. At Christchurch airport the sun was shining down pretty hard, not what we'd expected due to talking to many people about the weather in New Zealand- however by the time we got the shuttle to our hostel the weather was grey and over-cast and it pretty much stayed that way until you next see me insert an entry about sunshine. What hit me most as we drove from the airport was how quickly we hit what I can only call suburbia, so much green- trees, gardens parks, houses with big gardens and
pretty flowers: I'd expected Christchurch to be a buzzing city, of course not on par with Sydney but still this was unbelievable.
After unpacking, Liz, Sarah's Cousin and Mickey, a friend of Sarahs from work- greeted us as they had arrived before us: The four of us would be travelling together for the next month in New Zealand. The rest of the day was spent walking through this sprawling suburbia they call Christchurch. I cannot deny that it was a very pretty place with art and craft places every where, gorgeous scenery, a tram and many places to have coffee and beautiful restaurants to eat in. We had a lovely meal in a pub/restaurant called Dulux ( I Think) and then a drink a really good restaurant that we couldn't have afforded to have dinner in called Cooking on Gas- you should definitely go here if you ever come.
The next day we headed straight for the gondola- one of the 'must do things' in Christchurch which took us up to a stunning lookout over a lake that looked so amazingly blue it looked like it had been in photo shop. From the look out you could also see
the sea in the distance as well as most of Christchurch. At the same place you could go on a gimmicky ride that is meant to take you though the geology of how the mountain was formed but it was crap to say the least. After some involuntary shopping at the huge gift shop we headed down the gondola and back into town where we split up, Sarah and Mickey going to the famous Ant Artic Centre and me and Liz having a look around the town and getting some beers to celebrate the sun some coming out in the afternoon. That evening we cooked in the hostel- pasta and sauce the staple back backer diet, and got ready for a long next day on the Trans alpine express to Greymouth where our Magic bus tour began.
The Trans alpine route was pretty awesome, lets just say that most time was spent looking out the windows and taking hundreds of pictures, it is certainly the way to get across to greymouth, I have never seen such scenery, mountains, lakes, trees, grasses, sheer drops and different shades of green.
We arrived at our hostel that was called Noahs arc and
every room had an animal theme which was quite fun, I was hoping to get the Kiwi room but we were put in a four bed luminous pink pig room which was ok too. This was our first intro to hostel bunk beds that were to prove a contentious issue for the rest of the trip as three of us usually wanted the bottom bunk!! With about five minutes to spare for lunch we walked around this miniscule town and then caught the bus for our Coastal Explorer tour. The first stop took us on a mini bush walk where we saw a 1000 yr old tree and then came out from the forest onto the coast and a beautiful beach After this we were taken to the Pancake Rocks- one of the highlights of this trip. The name was enough to have me salivating and the rocks them selves were a sight to behold, they really did looks like stacks of pancakes. There was also a blow hole there but it must have been shy that day as it produced no huge spurts of water at all. On the way home our driver was kind enough to drop Liz
and me off at the brewery tour we had booked on.
The Monteiths brewery tour was packed and little did we know then but with most of the people on the Magic bus that we would be spending the next few weeks with. The tour was ok but every one was slightly anxious to get to the tasting bit which did not disappoint. All the beer was made here and all tasted yummy. After a while the lady in charge let people pour there own pints which descended into absolute Chaos only shy of people holding there heads under the beer taps in a Barney- Simpsons esk- way!!!
We then went to the free BBQ that was included in the price of the tour and drank copious amounts of beer- it was then that Liz decided, after repeatedly hearing of a famous family in Greymouth with the same rare second name as her (Toal)- that she would go looking for them! So we hit the dark streets in a bit of a wasted way asking complete strangers where this family lived and they directed us to a pub. When in side Liz swiftly bought up the subject and was introduced
Liz brewery tour
Liz shows what can happen if you are left to pour your own drink! to the owner's mother and father- the father unmistakeably being related to father Jack from father Ted. Strangely after chatting with the family they discovered their relations did come from Scotland and there could actually be a link between them. After swapping numbers we headed back for more beer which was cruelly followed by an early wake up to catch the bus the next morning.
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