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Published: August 7th 2007
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Lunchtime view
The views over to Arthurs Pass on our tramp (the kiwi word for walking!) We arrived in Christchurch and were greeted by Rich and Tarsh at the airport which was great - after a few moments of greetings it was like we had never left them in Africa which was fantastic.
We were lucky that Tarsh had the following day off, so we went walking into the local hills with their six-month-old jack Russell puppy called Sprocket. We were hoping for views out over the bay and to the Southern Alps but the fog and rain put pay to that - welcome to New Zealand! We got absolutely soaked but it was nice to be somewhere so green and also to know that we didn't have to go back to a camping ground with a luke-warm shower.
We spent the next couple of days in the centre of Christchurch, looking at the art galleries and the cathedral. There is a lovely river in the middle of town and all of the trees are turning their autumn colours - it feels really Christmassy to me, so I'm trying to convince Sam that we have to go for a Christmas dinner (i will track somewhere down), bring on the brusssel sprouts!!
The rest of
Valley views
Afternoon snack views..not that the walk was all about food! the week was quite busy - we bought a car. It has already been given the unfortunate nickname of the "hearse". It is a Mitsubishi Magna and it is so long it's ridiculous! We are thinking that if we get strapped for cash, we can always do a spot of moonlighting on the side!
We went to watch the rugby on Friday night - a super 14's game between The Crusaders (the local Canterbury team) and The Chiefs. A lot of the All Blacks play for the Crusaders, although I didn't really know any of them. At the end Rich caught one of the rugby balls that the players kicked into the crowds, so that softened the blow that the Crusaders lost. All the little kids that were hanging around were hoping that Rich might give the ball to them, but no chance!
Over the weekend we went walking on the two day "Cass-Lagoon track". It was a fantastic walk, doing about 6 hours each day. We stayed overnight in a hut and ate so much food that we probably needed to turn round and do it again to walk it all off! The weather was brilliant and
Something funny
Rich, Tarsh and Sam, probably still laughing at my river crossing ability! the views were amazing - this is the New Zealand that you hope to see and why we liked it so much last time we came. The walk was moderately hard going; enough to make you tired but still wanting to keep going. At first Sam and me were walking round all of the puddles and trying to keep our feet dry when crossing the rivers - Rich and Tarsh were straight through everything without even noticing. I seem to have developed a habit of getting half way across the river and then just stopping and getting stuck..also I seem to have a liking for rolling logs which I stand on as if in some sort of circus act before falling off, much to everyone's amusement! I was marginally better the next day but it's something I obviously need to practice at.
After a week we thought that we'd better leave Tarsh and Rich alone for a bit so we headed of on our first Wwoofing (willing workers on organic farms) job. In exchange for about 5 hours work a day you get free accommodation and meals, so we thought that it would be worth a try and we
Hamilton Hut
You can just make out the hut that we slept in the bottom left hand corner might even get to learn something on the way. We drove for 7 hours (luckily the hearse made it) to a place called Alexandra further south on the South Island. It is a small farm that grows amongst other things garlic, for their garlic and walnut pate and potatoes. The couple that live there are nice but we didn't realise that he was a practising Christian, so when we were sat round the dining table for dinner we all had to hold hands so that he could say grace. It was very embarrassing seeing as Sam had already started tucking into his food! We stayed for 3 days digging potatoes and peeling garlic - I can still smell it on my hands now- I'm sure it's also seeping out my pores as we also ate a lot of the home-made creations of , pickled garlic, chilli garlic and roasted garlic. The weather turned nice so it was lovely to be outside and doing something productive but, we wanted to push on after 3 days to see what other interesting people we can meet....!
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JODY AND JONNO
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HEARSE
HI FOLKS. GLAD YOU GUYS ARE HAVING A GOOD TIME. THE PICS LOOK AMAZING- ESPECIALLY THE ONE OF THE HEARSE!! DON'T SCRAP IT- I'LL BYE IT OFF YOU! WATCH OUT FOR THE SHEEP. US XXXX