Ali goes Adventuring in christcurch

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I've had a great day! There have been tall towers, steaming coffees, swinging gondolas and daring downhills. All told my kind of day! 
This epic day started very early, well for me anyways, the dorm awoke at 7! I mean 7 I'm on holiday for gods sake, but after a pointless 1/2 an hour attempt at staying in bed I got up to face the day. 
One of the guys in my dorm looks just like John Malchovich, turns out his name is tim and he's Canadian. Well that's what he says and he's here for some fishing, but I suspect I know the truth, I can officially say I've seen Malcatraz in his tighty whiteys. He made a valleant attempt to talk to me this morning, but I'm hopeless in a morning, I ummed and arred about where I came from, I mean honestly I must have answered that question a 1000 times so far this trip, after a small discussion he agreed not to ask me anything else until after I'd had a cup of tea, which he didn't. In fact he waited dilligently on the table next to me for me to finish before asking me my name and if I though cuppa was a proper word, I'm quite pleased he saved that one. 
Being early I thought I'd do some shoping before heading out to the gondola, which of course took up the whole morning, typical!  But I did remember that I had a recomendation to go up the cathedral tower. 
Which I did. The view was some what spoiled by the tower blocks that surround th mid town cathedral but the steps up were fantastic, first a stone spiral, then a metal spiral and finally a metal ladder that looked like stairs but wow betide anyone who made that mistake. I followed a family up the steps who noisily counted the steps as they went, overall it was very sureal but I liked it. 
The cathedral itself was quite interesting with encaustic tiles on the Walls just like the ones on my hall floor at home, and a very intricate maori weaving made of wood and leather in a simple but mind twisting way. Almost like a mirage. 
After lunch I finally made it to the gondola, a stream of cable cars up to port hills, the ridge of volcanic hills surrounding Christchurch. The view was amazing and I was amazed at the layout of the land, from down here on the plains you have no idea what's going on just a couple of miles away, a lake, actually I think it is like a fjord open to the sea is hiden from the main city by the ring of hills it's powder blue with the silt build up and has a port at one end, but from here who knew. 
Your ticket up gives you access to a free ride on the passage through time, which was unique, at least I hope it was. Being a singleton I got added to another party to go around this, well, imagine the yorvic centre without the smells or very much time, it galloped through 2million years of geoelogical and historical fact in ten minutes and honestly was one of the funniest things, those so bad it was good, made all the worse/better by my group who were clapping and taking photos. 
From there I picked up my bike to descend. Oh my god how much fun was that! I had a great afternoon first cycling around the top of the hills, I cycled all of it too, no pushing, honest brownies honor. And then whizzing down a gravel track from top to bottom, my arms are killing me from the speed and bumpiness of the ride but it was great, exhillararing, the seanary was a bit like pen y van, low scrub turned brown by the sun but honestly I had the best time. It wasn't taxing not a complex ride but it didn't matter I was just how I wanted to spend my afternoon. 
Tomorrow I've got another early start and day of travelling as I make my way from here to the fox glacier over arthurs pass on the train and then a coach down the west coast. 

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