New Zealand

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Thankfully when we got up the sun was shining and it was warm. The sight of the sun cheered us up and we caught the bus into town with the intention of doing a bit of sightseeing.

We arrived into the main square, which could have almost passed as European if it hadn‘t been for the fact that all the buildings were far too new. It was lovely and open, and there were a few sculptures dotted around so immediately we got the impression that we were in a creative city. We hopped on the tram, which was part of a fleet of old fashioned carriages that had been renovated to take tourists around the main sites in a 25 minute loop. A couple of stops along we jumped off at the arts market, outside the main arts building. We were lucky to arrive on a weekend as the market only runs on Saturdays and Sundays. It was buzzing with people buying and selling arts and crafts. We wandered around until the delicious smells from the food vans took hold of us, then we mooched up the food alley and checked out all of our options. We finally selected a Slovakian kebab stall that looked very popular. We’ve found that kebabs here are a common take away to eat at all hours (ie not just at 11pm after you’ve had a skinfull) as they are reasonably low in fat and good value. We ended up with a homemade flatbread filled with a big scoop of chicken and vegetables, and the usual chilli sauce - luckily we got a fork with it as there was no way of picking it up! But it was fantastic and really tasty - probably more so because we were eating it outdoors in the sunshine in the middle of an atmospheric arts market. Eating put us in an even better mood so we enjoyed the next hour or two browsing around the various galleries indoors and the stalls outside.

Matt didn’t complain when I bought an engraved silver ring from one of the silversmith stalls, but I knew it was because he had plans to go shopping for a kite and he knew that if he let me buy something I wouldn’t be able to stop him from spending too!

After completing the tour of the arts and crafts stalls we strolled over to the beautiful new art gallery across the road and had a look around at the various exhibitions. It was free to get in and it was far bigger than any of the other galleries we’ve seen on the trip so far. We especially enjoyed an exhibition by an artist specialising in film work where he’d spliced and stretched various images playing with perception and time (even Matt appreciated it which is saying something as contemporary art isn’t normally his thing).

After a rest in the gallery café for some extremely delicious coffee, we got back on the tram and did the rest of the loop, arriving back to the river Avon just in time to pick up our punting trip which we‘d booked earlier.

We climbed on board the boat with difficulty - me because of my broken rib and Matt because he still had a pain in his side fom the fall! Our punter was a young British lad, dressed in an old fashioned costume with a straw hat to round the look off. We travelled slowly up the river, which is apparently the fastest flowing river that is punted on in the world. Going up the river was the easy part - it looked like much harder work to push against the flow on the way back down. We saw lots of ducks, and enjoyed seeing the city from more relaxed viewpoint. The trip lasted thirty minutes and our punter said they work all day until 9pm in the summer so it was a job that definitely kept them fit.

By the time our punt was over it was already evening so we found the bus back to our campsite in an effort to escape town before we spent any more money.

Back in the van we realised just how much food and drink we had left to use before flying to Sydney, so we spent the night eating chocolate and drinking, wine and beer.

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