New Zealand

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I arrived in New Zealand last nice, and I was rather happy to leave Fiji. As bad as it sounds, there is only so much laying on the beach a guy can do until he gets board. Also, the price of things is very expensive and my skin has had about enough sun as it can take.

When landing into Christchurch I had a problem in customs. Turns out, you need a ticket leaving the country before you can actually enter it, since no one took the time to explain this to me customs stopped me and gave me a hard time saying 'this is going to be a LONG night'.. Actually, it went pretty smooth. I just talked to one of the supervisors and explained the suitation and he put me on a 30 day visa while saying 'cheers' and 'no worries mate' about 5 times each. I am currently traveling with a guy I met in Fiji, a 22 year old English guy. Turns out we were on the same flight so I booked a room with him and we might actually be traveling together during our time here since we both sort of have the same plans. When we got to the hostel in Christchurch it was about 1 am and I was happy to get to bed, too bad I was greeted by a rude Kiwi who again said 'mate' and 'cheers' another 10 times... And people say Canadians say "eh" too much.

I was able to buy a card reader so hopefully I can ad some pics I took of Christchurch while walking around a little downtown. So far, the city is very clean and has an old feeling too it. People seem very friendly, and it is busy enough but nothing like toronto. You are not swimming in a sea of people, thats for sure.

Tomorrow it looks like I will be doing the kiwi experience bus tour to see the south island and go to Queenstown, which is suppose to be THE PLACE to go.

Funny thing about NZ is that the south island is actually the cold island. Speaking of which, its very cold today. It was quite a shock coming from 35+ weather in Fiji, and coming to 6 degrees of NZ. I was in my shorts and a tee shirt when walking out side and I think I only managed to walk 3 feet before going back inside to dig a sweater out of my bag. I was hoping NZ would be a little warmer, I am still unsure if this is typical for this time of year.

Just as I am writing this, someone was saying something over the intercom and of course, he used the word 'mate'. If I come back and thats all I say, im sorry.

Until next time.

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Photos

Police car
I just thought it looked kinda cool

hillside
this was from downtown

Comments

[James]

Enjoy NZ mate
Welcome to NZ mate. I've travelled a bit and have to say there's no place like home. There's heaps to see and do as a plug try www.dosomething.co.nz it's full of great things to do around he country, lots of free local things as well as the big commercial activities. Shame about the weather but never fear its supposed to improve shortly, got to expect bad weather after all its the end of the school holidays. Well have fun and don't forget to go to Dunedin, it's not as bad as everyone in Chch say's ;)

[Ashley]

Give me a date
Hey babe !! So give me a date when you get in Sydney! I might be moving to the dessert, so I want to see you before I go!! x