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Published: December 4th 2007
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So after an early start, I feel like we write that a lot.... We headed for the final part of our Kiwi Experience, Christchurch! It was nearly 8 hours on the coach only stopping a couple times for food and some quick photo ops! We stopped for lunch by a lake that we can't remember the name of, but it had great views of Mt Cook. Our second stop was at the Church of the good shepard which was the 1st church built in New Zealand, plus there was the added bonus of a big statue of a sheep dog! When we finally arrived in Christchurch we headed straigh for our hostel and the supermarket to stock up on food. We were greatful that the hostel had an oven so we could cook something without a frying pan! Christchurch is said by the locals to be the most English city outside of England. So yes, it's grey and a bit dull. It has its very own River Avon running through where you can go punting (out of our budget...)!
Another early morning, here we go again, as we were off to visit Kaikoura! We hired a car for the day
and were picked up at 8:30 to go and get it. We were presented with a beauty of a car. It looked a bit like a fridge with wheels. All was good until we realised it was an automatic and we stared at it for a while before someone explained what was what. After working out that D was for drive, we pulled out of the garage for our first driving experience in Christchurch with Joe at the wheel and Kim navigating. The car hire company neglected to tell us that they were on a 1 way street so we drove straight into on-coming traffic. So after that minor hiccup Kim did some marvolus navigating of Christchurch through the many one way streets and onto Highway 1! It was about a 2 and a half hour drive but was beautiful.
We arrived nice and safely and headed to the Information booth to plan out our day. We decided to take a Whale watching trip to view some Sperm Whales. After watching a short information video we were off to the boat, quite a swanky boat actually! The reason they get so many Whales around Kaikoura is because of the
kaikoura trench, a 1000m deep Ocean trench that comes very close to land in the kaikoura area. There are to Ocean currents that meet on the area and the trench acts like a funnel and drawa the water through filling the area with nutrients for all the fish etc. After about an hour we saw our first Sperm Whale. He had been spotted earlier that day and they knew he had been under the water for about 40 mins so we had to play the waiting game until he came up for breath. The captin pulled the boat behind the Whale so that we could get some great photos of the whale as he dived back down. He stayed up for about 15mins before heading back for more food. It was awesome to be so close to such a magnificent creature! After he had gone we headed over to another sight where a different Sperm Whale, Big Nick, had just surfaced. We only saw him for about 5 mins before he headed back down with a splash.
On the way back to the harbour we past a small pod of dusky dolphins playing in the water. The swam all
around the boat and had a bit of a show off jumping in and out. The water was so clear you could see them swimming under the surface.
When we returned to land we decided to head to the Seal Colony along the coast. We arrived and stood staring at rocks for a while thinking we couldn't see any until one of the rocks moved and it turned out to be a huge Seal! Oops.... We had a walk around the rocks and met a few more but kept our distance as one lady got a bit close and was chased away promtly with it barking behind her.
After our Seal encounter we had some food and headed back to Christchurch. In typical English fashion we were stuck behind a caravan for ages that refused to pull into the slow vechical bays along the road. We got back in the early evening and had a quiet night watching films.
Sunday we returned our lovely car and prepared for a day exploring Christchurch. We went on a tram ride around the city stopping off to visit the local market. The tram drivers explain all about the history off
the city while they take you around and tell you all the interesting places to visit. After the tram we got a coffee and waiting for the start of the Santa parade! Kim was very excited by this, Joe was too but he pretended he wasn't because hes a bloke.... Now, if you know the carnivals we have back at home in Bridgwater and are expecting it to be anything like this.... you're very, very wrong! Also calling it the Santa Parade is rather deceptive. It wasn't a parade of Santas! There was 1 right at the end. The rest was a rather strange collection of things. Here's some of the highlights...
- A giant walking Cheese Puff
- A seal driving a tank
- A strange bearded hippy man riding a unicycle with a child on his shoulders. He did 2 laps and fell off once (without the child).
- A haunted house?!
- A giraffe in a truck
- Darth Vader and some storm troopers
- A bee in an old car
- A REAL sheep in a car
- A chipmunk in a mini
- The shameless advertising of McDonalds
- And whats a santa parade
without KNIGHTRIDER!
Unfortunatley the camera battery died before we could get a picture of santa as Kim took too many pictures of the many comical sights that day. After the parade we went to the Aquarium and Kiwi centre to see native fish and Kiwi's. There were some pretty huge fish. It was the first time either fo us had seen a Kiwi and we imagined they were small, they were not! Sadly we wern't allowed to take any pictures inside as they were all very shy. Plus it was dark so you wouldn't be able to see anything, so actually, you're not missing out.
Monday morning we were up at 6am (what is it with these early mornings aye?!) so we would be ontime for the TranzAlpine train. The train takes you from Christcurch, through the southern alps in the south island across to Greymouth. (You many remember Greymouth as the place where we got the fancy dress costumes!). We went through the Cantebury plains first, which weren't that interesting, mostly farmland, and Joe slept through this. We stopped at Springfield briefly to pick up more people before heading through the Alps. There were 19 tunnels, the
longest being 8.5km which took 15 years (we think...) to complete and at the time was the 7th longest tunnel in the world. We went over several viaducts, the highest being 74 metres high and got some spectacular views through the valleys and mountains. The journey to Greymouth took 4 and a half hours, we got an hour in the lovely Greymouth (oh joy) before heading back again. Our seats on the way back were on the other side of the train so we got different views each time. It was a really good trip and well worth doing if you're ever in New Zealand!
That evening was spent utilising the oven by making pizza's woo hoo, and also packing for our flight to Melbourne! So today is our last day in New Zealand! Our flight is at 6.30am tomorrow morning and we have to get a shuttle to the airport at 3am. The hostel wouldn't let us sit and watch TV so they're making us pay for a room for half the night! Cheek! New Zealand has been loads of fun, it's an amazing place that you have to visit if you get the chance! Now Australia beckons,
BRING ON THE SUN!
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Clare
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Team England!
Just want to let you guys know we all miss you tons and Queenstown isn't the same without you!!! Keep intouch...