Advertisement
Published: February 26th 2008
So finally we arrived in the big NZ
Tuesday We arrived to... surprise surprise a rainy Christchurch on the Tuesday, and by the time we got to our hostel and checked in, the rain stopped. We headed into the centre of town to have a look at what was around. We took a walk by the river and grabbed a cup of coffee, and had a fairly chilled evening. The hostel was quite busy, but was just 5 mins walk from the centre, so it was easy walking everywhere
Wednesday We got up reasonably early, and as the weather was a bit iffy, we headed over to the International Antarctic Centre, which is the main launch base from which most of the Antarctic expeditions leave. They had a great exhibition on the bases, conditions, geography and history of Antarctica, as well as a storm room, which simulates a -20 degrees celcius windchill, complete with snow and ice slide inside! They also have a collection of Blue Penguins there which were fun and cute.
Thursday Being St Valentines, we booked a table at a nice restaurant by the river on Oxford Terrace of all places! The weather was perfect.
Sunny and quite warm, so, in the day we went for a long walk around town and the Botanical Gardens. We also stopped at the Arts Centre, which was nice to look at, but there wasn't a lot there. We also hopped on the tram for a nice Kiwi take on the town with our Frappacinos.
Friday We picked up the car in the morning. We have christened her "DJ" so any references to this from now on can be taken to be talking about the car! She is a bright yellow Hyundai Getz. An eyesight, some might say, but we prefer to think of her as having a vibrant personality 😊 more on her to come in future blogs (including pics) after lunch at the irish pub, we went to the Otago Museum, which had a small collection of interesting items from the region, including a small native history and the english arriving. In the evening, we decided to splash out on a SatNav! This has already proved to be very useful and had probably saved a few arguments over the directions!! ha ha. Later we went to the Jade Stadium to watch the first match of the
2008 Super 14 (rugby union for those that don't know) the Canterbury Crusaders(NZ) vs ACT Brumbies(Aus). We both thoroughly enjoyed it, with good seats and a beer in hand, it was a great way to finish our visit to Christchurch!
Stay tuned for Arthurs Pass - coming soon!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.081s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 7; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0462s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Peter Cox
non-member comment
A Hairy Handful
Hi Chris Glad you enjoyed the Footie (Rugby) in Christchurch but was interested to read about you sitting with a bear in hand. Now I know New Zealand rugby players are big and macho but I didn't know they expect spectators to be equally so! Hope Yas enjoyed her beer while you were coping with the wildlife. Look forward to the next hairy instalment! Take Care Dad