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After leaving the warm sunny weather of Sydney, I took a quick plane over the Tasman and luckily it was a clear day and saw the amazing mountain ranges of the South Island of New Zealand before landing and the weather change was quite a shock to me. It felt as if I was back in Ireland and immediately had to dig out my jumpers from the bottom of my bag that I had to all but forget about for the previous 3 months.
To add to that, after walking around Christchurch and finally finding accomodation after 99% of the hostels were full due to a rugby game, I was amoken in the middle of the night by a great big hail storm that swept through the city and almost took out the hostel aswell!
The next day was rainy and I realised that my shoes were not waterproof and I started to think why have I come here, but determined to press on I decided to take a look around town, and must admit that Christchurch is a really quaint city and even though it is rather small, it has to offer most that a
average modern day city does.
The botanical gardens was really interesting, and is a stark contrast to the flora you would find in Australia, it is more of a typical English look and had an autumn feel that was so refreshing. The walk was short lived however due to another storm coming through, I decided that the only way to travel this country was to buy a car.
After three days looking, I found a bargain at the backpacker car market for $600 NZ. I was very happy and burnt some rubber quick smart outta town with a brief stop in New Brighton ( why does every city in Australia and New Zealand have a Brighton i do not know! ) This one even had a pier, and i was well impressed, no silly gimics to sell just a straight walk out at least 100 metres from shore and the powerful waves crashing against it was grand.
I decided to first head to Akaroa, on the Banks Penisula about 160km east of Christchurch, this little town was first settled by the French, and the street names still have rue in the title. However, the
Christchurch
New Brighton Pieronly part that even seemed to be French was the architecture and even that was not really French. It is also hard to believe that the harbour there used to be the centre of the massive volcano that created the whole area.
The Lonely Planet stated that a backpackers called Le Bon backpackers is one of the best in New Zealand so i had to check it out and I was very impressed! A tiny little log cabin, family owned it felt like a home away from home. After not doing much there for a few days apart from sitting in front of a nice log fire sipping coffee I realised I had to escape now of forever be stuck there!
I decided to head further south towards Lake Tekapo, a lake with an astonishing turquoise colour to it with breath taking mountains in the background. It also felt as if the weather was almost had a life of its own. Small wind gusts would come and go every few minutes which at the best of times felt very creepy indeed. I had a drive around and found a beautiful smaller lake nearby and thought camping
Akaroa
Harbour that night was a good idea?!?? My $40 tent took an absolute battering with gale force winds and rain almost blowing me away, somehow i survived the night and thought whilst in the area I must go and visit the almighty tallest mountain of New Zealand Aoraki ( or Mt Cook ). Stay posted for more...
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