Last blog from New Zealand!

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After Akaroa, I went back to Christchurch. It’s the largest city on the South Island of New Zealand with about 350.000 people. The city was hard hit by two earthquakes. One in September 2010 and the other in February 2011. The second earthquake was the worst, since the epicentre was very close the Christchurch and it was just 5km deep. The earthquakes caused major destruction in Christchurch, especially in the city centre, were many buildings were severely damaged and some collapsed. A total of 185 people died. In the city it’s clearly visible that something went wrong, but it was really interesting to visit the city! There is construction going on everywhere and there are several empty lots waiting for construction to start. There are also many abandoned buildings, some of them up to 20 stories high! It’s been almost 4 years now, but lack of funds and serious delays with insurance claims are the reasons why the re-building is going very slow. Historic buildings were also damaged, such as the Christchurch Cathedral. Luckily enough, the beautiful New Regent Street wasn’t damaged and the iconic tram that runs through the city, still passes there. The government has a plan to rebuild the whole city centre with modern buildings, better equipped against earthquakes by using the “base isolation retrofit” system, which would cause minimal shacking to the buildings in event of an earthquake.

In one part of the city-centre, they temporarily built-up an area with shops, restaurants, café’s etc. made out of containers. It’s a colourful place that gets quite crowded during weekends. It’s called “Re:start” and was built to get people to come to the city centre again. I went to a place called “Quake City” which is like a small museum / exposition about the earthquakes that hit the city and about earthquakes in New Zealand in general. There is a screen where you can watch interviews with several Christchurch inhabitants telling their stories about how they experienced the earthquakes. It was very interesting and informative to visit Quake City. The Canterbury Museum, located next to the beautiful Christchurch Botanic Gardens, was also worth a visit. They had several sections in the museum, but only two sections caught my attention a lot. First one was the Antarctic exhibition. It was all about the history of the research-stations on Antarctica, focusing mostly on the Hallett Station which was made by New Zealander and USA. The museum displayed real huts in which people used to live, equipment people used, including a big snowcat used during the Trans-Antarctic expedition in the late 1950’s . It made me more curious to visit Antarctica now, the only continent I haven’t been to. If I ever make it there, it will be somewhere between a Decemeber and a February of course, when it’s less cold.
The other section was about the indigenous population of New Zealand: “The tangata whenua" (people of the land), the Maori people and the Moriori people from the Chatham Islands located about 700km east of New Zealand. There was a lot to see and read about their history, about how they survived, tools they used, their art, their first contact with European settlers etc. I met another former-colleague in Christchurch, Dimitra from Greece. I just walked out of a convenience store and I saw her coming, she was jogging! Unbelievable how much of a coincidence that was again. We didn’t take a picture. I didn’t want to ask for a picture because she was jogging and was a bit sweaty and her face was red....and I know how girls get when they have to take pictures and they don’t look “good” according to themselves, hahaha! I also met Tynan for a few beers. I used to work with him in Melbourne, Australia back in 2008 and we lived at the same hostel. It was cool to catch up again after such a long time!

After Christchurch I took the bus to Nelson, on the north of the South Island. The bus stopped for about 45 minutes in Kaikoura. I knew a former-colleague was there, but I wasn’t in touch with her and I had no idea where she was staying. I got off the bus and went for a short walk around town and the shore. When I came back to the bus, which was parked in front of a hostel, I just turned around to look inside and I saw my former-colleague there at the reception. I couldn’t believe it, again I met another former-colleague. She’s Kristy from Czech Republic and she was working there at the hostel.
I continued to Nelson, the oldest city on the South Island and has about 60.000 people. There isn’t much to see and do in Nelson itself but I found it a small but picturesque city, nicer than I thought it would be. I checked in for two nights at a hostel and I loved it so much, that I extended with two more nights. It wasn’t the most expensive hostel I’ve been to in New Zealand and they offer: “Free breakfast (toast, butter, jam, milk, cereal, tea, coffee), free vegetable soup with bread early evening, free unlimited wifi, beachvolleyball court and a small sauna, pool & jacuzzi! It was just perfect, I think it’s the best hostel I’ve ever stayed at. Of course there were many other backpackers at the hostel, mostly Germans. Nothing against it, but I have to mention this: “The Germans are all over New Zealand, it’s crazy!” Everywhere you go, every hostel, bus, tour etc. there “must” be at least one German there. Most of the time they form the majority, like at this hostel. I’d say that 75% was German and most of them are between 18-20 years old, fresh out of high school. Even the Germans themselves say that there are Germans everywhere and sometimes it bothers them. Many of them want to improve their English but end up speaking German all the time, haha! At the hostel there were also people from the UK, France, Argentina, Uruguay, Slovenia, Brazil, USA, Spain, Canada, Portugal, Netherlands, Guadeloupe, Australia, Israel, Peru, Sweden, Chile and of course Curaçao* hahah. Again, a lot of people found out that there is a country called Curaçao, a small island in the Caribbean...everyone reacts “WOW, Caribbean....how nice”!! I’ll never get tired explaining where it is, how big it is, what languages we speak, how many people live there, what’s the economy based on etc. I never start talking too much about Curaçao, but people always ask many questions about it and I’m more than happy to answer. It was fun just to relax there at the hostel, not doing much, sleep a bit longer, hang out, swim, beachvolleyball, play cards (I taught some people how to play “Casino” and they loved it!).

I went to Abel Tasman National Park for one day and it was a perfect, sunny day! I started kayaking with a group for about 3 hours on the sea, along the coast of the national park. On the way I saw dolphins too, it couldn’t have gotten better! The park consists of different bays and sandy beaches. There are several small caves within the cliffs in which you can take a look and come back out, or some narrow waterways between the cliffs. On one of these beaches we had a short break to eat and drink something. After kayaking we hiked 12km through the park, back to the place we started kayaking, the tiny village of Marahau. The park is famous for its 51km-trek which takes 3 to 5 days. Along the route they have huts where you can spend the night. Of course you need to take your own food etc. While hiking, I saw several people walking with their big backpacks walking the track. The park reminded me a lot of Manuel Antonio National Park, which I visited in April 2013 in Costa Rica.

Next I took the bus to Picton, a small town which is the arrival and departure port of the ferries connecting South-and North Island. Here I boarded a ferry to Wellington, New Zealand’s capital, which took about 3,5 hours to cross the windy Cook Strait. I enjoyed some beautiful views while cruising through the Marlborough Sounds. In Wellington, where I’ve already been in March, I spent just one night and continued to New Plymouth the next day. There I met with Jayden and he showed me around. I met Jayden at work, his job sends him to the hotel once a month to do some check-ups on sanitary equipment and I had to go to the tavern to open and let him in and wait while he’s doing his job. That’s how we started talking. It was really kind of him to show me around New Plymouth and its surroundings and we went out for dinner at a Mongolian restaurant at the city together with his girlfriend, Rebecca, and a few of his friends.
New Plymouth is the largest city of the Taranaki area and has about 70.000 people. I’d say, New Plymouth is just a little city, nothing too special. I wouldn’t say it’s a “beautiful” city but it has its nice parts, like everywhere else. We climbed up the 156m high Paritutu Rock, a steep hill right at the coast from where you have an excellent view over New Plymouth and the coast towards the south which looks stunning! Not far from the city, Mt. Taranaki in Egmont National Park stands proudly at 2518m, covered with snow on the upper areas. First we went to the visitor centre of the national park, from which you can do a couple of walks. They have like a small museum there where we took a look but then we left because the weather wasn’t too great. Besides, I wasn’t much in the mood to do a long walk to be honest! Jayden said we could try the other side of the mountain where they have a skifield. We drove there and hiked for about 30 minutes to get to the skifield called “Manganui”. It’s a very small skifield and usually opens only for a few weeks every year. The walk towards the skifield was stunning and the weather was much better on this side of the mountain. Jayden used to work fulltime for the rescue-helicopter company. He told me various stories of people he had to rescue off the mountain or people they found dead on the mountain, and also people who committed suicide by jumping off the Paritutu Rock.

Then I continued towards Auckland to board a plane to the Pacific. Read more in the next blog!

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Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Farewell to N.Z.
A beautiful country and you've had a chance to see a good bit of it. Great memories of our time there.