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Published: February 7th 2007
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17/01/07 - 08/02/07 Christchurch
We arrived in Christchurch and immediately felt very at home. The town looked and felt much more like England than anywhere else in the world that we’d been. Christchurch has boutique clothes shops and loads of cafes and restaurants with tables spilling out onto the wide pavements. The Avon River, flanked by Oxford and Cambridge terraces has huge weeping willows, planted by the homesick British settlers when they first arrived and botanical gardens on the edge of town. We sipped sparkling wine and indulged in our favourite drink discovery of New Zealand - chai lattes and punted down the river courtesy of one of the old fashioned costumed punters, working out of their green and white stripy boating sheds.
I have never seen a place with so many outdoor camping and clothes shops, mountain bikes and mountain bike gear and seen so many people out cycling and jogging ranging in age from teens to 60s. It certainly is an outdoors place where people have an outdoor keep-fit mentality.
In the botanical gardens we came across the Peace bell sculpture, made from coins and medals from 106 countries and then a very UFO looking structure
Hanging in the air
Jen on her tandem flight that turned out to be a ‘Futuro’ - the classic Finnish design icon from the 1960s, designed as a futuristic house.
In 3 weeks in Christchurch, we made the most of the Arts center cinema, watching ‘The wind that shake the barley’ in a tiny screening with only 2 rows of 4 seats, as well as ‘The Queen’ in a slightly bigger cinema.
I played chess on the giant board in town and lost in shockingly short time - must have been the glasses of Sauvignon Blanc taking my concentration. We found the produce of many of the Marlborough Sauvy vineyards to be very acceptable, particularly the Framingham, Cloudy Bay, Montana and Oyster Bay to name a handful that I can remember!
The annual World Buskers Festival was on at the time, providing very cheap entertainment (mostly donation based) and we watched rope-spinning, fire-juggling, uni-cycling comedians (one making a pancake on stage throughout the length of his act) night after night and at various locations throughout the city.
For Jen’s birthday, we headed up to Hamner Springs for the thermal baths and massages, but not the quality or value for money that we had been accustomed
Ready to go!
The anticipation of 5 aborted launches... to in Thailand! In the evening we went to a live comedy show - 'Scared Scriptless' where the comedians act out scenes based on the audience suggestions - very clever and quick whitted. We also slipped over to Akaroa on one of the days and although it was pushed constantly from the Visitor TV channel in our accommodation, we didn’t find it anything to write home about, although the Dolphin trips are supposed to be good.
Christchurch has close links to Antarctica with many countries scientists flying in to Antarctica from Christchurch airport. The Antarctica exhibition has a ‘Hagglund’ ride where you can sample the capabilities of the Antarctica transport on some rough terrain and a cold room where you don coats and overshoes and sample an (mild) Antarctic storm, which was cold enough for us to be happy when it was over. I tested out the igloo and the ice slide (really meant for kids)
The main thrust if our time spent in Christchurch we decided to get our teeth into something. Jen did a week’s introductory pilates course and I went for my solo paragliding license (NZ PG2 - but international rating card to take back
to the UK). Jen had a tandem flight with the instructor, Dave from Parapro and then I started the course. The first day spent running down s small training slope, and then walking back up again was very tiring and by far the hardest of the course. Jen was in hysterics to see my ‘little legs’ pumping in the air as I followed the instructions to keep the running motion even when I started to take off. (She was in greater hysterics later in the course when the strong gusts of wind grabbed me before I could take off and dragged me through the smelliest wettest sheep shit in the whole field! - I've chucked the T-shirt and shorts away)
By the end of the first day I was ready for my first solo flight and suddenly there was a huge difference from the training hill as I launched over the hills with views out over the open ocean, to the landing site 700ft below. What an incredible feeling!! A slight hitch with the radios on my second flight was a test of my nerves and keeping a cool head as I steered and landed my wing, judging my
First solo flight!!!
A great moment - flying solo the first time decent speed and approach to the landing zone with no radioed instructions!!!
Some of the requirements for the PG2 license included; 40 flights at least 5 different sites and at least 2 over 10 minutes, landing on the same spot on consecutive landings, forward and reverse launches, 360 degree turns, pulling the sides of the wing in making ‘Ears’, flying with other airbourne craft etc etc… so it was a pretty intense couple of weeks, especially as the wind conditions had to be right. When the weather allowed I packed in 15 flights in a day and that’s hard on your arms, but well worth the effort. I’ve been diving with the fishes. Now it’s time to soar with the birds!
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Fun
You seem to be having lots of it,what did you think of the Queen film?