Peterborough on the other side of the world/ Big hill country

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Sorry for not updating, I don't know what got into me. The net connection is also a bit dodgy. I'm trying to upload photos but it requires patience as there are a lot of them.

Basically, I'm being put up in my uncle's house in Christchurch waiting for everyone to move back to Queenstown for a while and using up the time with daytrips. The arrangement is chaotic (I'm not the only one sleeping on the floor) but comfortable enough and I have a free guide and transport (my cousin Brent and his battered Corrola) so it's all good.

Trouble is Christchurch is rather dull. Sure, it has a cool park and the stretch between the museum and the cathedral is quite nice but it's essentially a sleepy English town placed in New Zealand, so it's not hugely inspiring. However, it's still the biggest town in South Island and my rural minded relatives describe it as a 'rat race' (I think "Eh? Huntingdon's busier.", but I suppose it makes sense if you've lived in the land of hills and sheep for years). They seem to have come to an arrangement where they grudgingly live here for the sake of my Uncle's business and zoom back to their apparently much nicer Queenstown residence whenever possible.

To summarise:
Day 1: My birthday! I got chocolate cake! Yay!

Day 2: We went into Christchurch. We went to a museum. We ate at Subway. It was nice.

Day 3: We went to Akaroa on the Banks Peninsula to the west of Christchurch. This is more what I came to NZ for! Nice hilly terrain, fjords and remoteness. Also, dodgy roads, which was less important to me than the rest. Windy, high altitude gravel tracks seem to be a feature of NZ driving so your fear of falling off a cliff gets knocked out quite quick, but not that quick.

We went out on a nice coastal drive to the town of Akaroa, where they make nice sandwiches, then we went back. Doesn't sound exciting till you consider the landscape. Man, that's nice landscape.

Day 4: More driving, this time to Mt Hutt down south. Why, even more lovely scenery and treacherous roads. All this makes for great photographs and stuff like that. Took a nice stroll over the peaks and a sidetrip to Lake Coleridge, which was remote and had great fog and dramatic lighting for extra eye candy value.

Day 5: Went to Christchurch again. Took a better look at the Botanic gardens and the art gallery. I also tried to buy stuff, which was difficult as all the stuff people may want to use is in the malls round the edge of town. Grr.

NZ is pretty promising. More later!

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Comments

[AJ]

Oh but oh but
Queenstown is fantastic. Particularly if you get the urge to throw yourself off a bridge or something, they like to cater for that there. Plus all New Zealanders have comical accents ^_^

[Looooweeeeeez]

Innit.
Did you get your birthday card? What did you think?

[Stig]

Yes I got the card
Yes I liked it. Thanks!

[Jonathan]

NZ
Back to Queenstown?? The just moved from there!! I agree with your assesment on Christchurch - the west coast is prettier (but also much wetter). Try to drive up the east coast it is quite stunning as well. If you are sick of sleeping on the floor ask to sleep in the bus - we cleaned it before we left so it should be safe!!!