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Published: March 4th 2014
We arrived in sunny Christchurch in the afternoon and checked into the YMCA hostel. We walked to the supermarket and there was still so much building work and roadworks going off even 3 years after the devastating earthquake hit. They reckon it will be another 20 years until Christchurch is fully completed which shows the type of damage an earthquake can have! Me and Freeman smashed a McDonalds whilst the girls bought supplies for dinner that evening. We rang our mate Pone who has lived in Christchurch for a year now helping with the construction works and he rocked up at our hostel pissed out his head and it was only about 6pm! Great first impression to the girls... The girls cooked dinner whilst us lads got a taxi to the liquor store to get the pre drinks for the evenings antics. Back in the taxi Pone cracked open his bottle of Goose so we were doing shots on the way back, strong start to the evening. We ate dinner, showered, got ready and got on the bevvies in our room. A couple of Pones mates then also randomly turned up at our hostel but they were both good lads so
it was fine. We then all went up to Jamie, Charley and Natalie's room to play drinking games and we all got smashed. We headed out and wandered around aimlessly for a while until Pone dropped a classic line 'I know where we're going, but I don't know where we're going'! The guy was that smashed! In the end we accepted defeat and headed back to the hostel and just went to bed.
In the morning Vicky and Shantelle had to get up at 6am for their bus up North so we said our goodbyes and then me and Freeman went back to sleep. We were going to stay with Pone for a few days before we flew to Australia. We checked out at 10am and text Pone but had no reply so we had to just chill in the hostel reception. Finally, around two hours later Pone randomly rocked up at our hostel with 3 cans of energy drink and his mate gave us all a lift back to his. We chucked all of our clothes in the wash and went out to get a Dominies pizza. Freeman and Pone sat and played FIFA while I just chilled,
it was so nice to be chilling in a house rather than a hostel for the first time in 3 months. We borrowed his mates car and drove down to the beach to meet Bonser, another lad we knew from back home that now lives here. We had a little paddle and then went to the pub and sat in the garden with a beer. After a quick walk down the pier I drove to a cliff face where the earthquake caused a massive landslide, taking houses with it. You could see a couple of houses still hanging over the edge. We got some more liquor for that night as we were going out again. Kiwi Tommy came round for pre drinks and it was another good sesh but this time we did actually make it out. We started off in Smash, doing a few shots then went to Cruise followed by Revival. The place was a lot more expensive than I expected! Freeman didn't get into the last bar as he was too drunk, god knows how I got in as I was steaming, and then Pone got kicked out by the owner as he had been told he
was only allowed one beer but then bought another one after. I couldn't believe how strict they were about drinking out there! We headed back to Pones and I passed out fully clothed on the sofa, a sign of a good night.
When I got up in the morning it was my sisters birthday so I sent her a video of me singing happy birthday. It wasn't actually her birthday yet back in England due to the time difference but she did appreciate it. When the lads got up we had some breakfast, played FIFA and then went on a road trip to Akaroa, about 2 and a half hours drive away. We picked up a girl called Sophie who Freeman and Pone knew from back home and off we went. The weather was terrible so the views of the lake in Akaroa weren't that good. We ended up just going to the pub for a drink and then driving all the way back to Christchurch, a bit of a wasted day. We stayed in that night and watched Last Vegas and I just drank loads of tea which was nice as I missed it from back home. It
was my turn to share Pones bed with him that night but he was a proper quilt hogger so I ended up being freezing!
In the morning we had breakfast and then whilst them two played FIFA again I copy and pasted all my photos to my backup USB drive and wrote another blog. We left the house around midday and drove two hours to Arthur's Pass. We parked up and took a half hour walk up to a really nice waterfall. We climbed up the rocks of the stream to get closer to the waterfall, but we ended up getting drenched by the spray so we retreated. We saw a sign for the 'Aickman Trail' which had a warning sign that it was for experienced walkers only and it looked really steep, but being lads we decided to do it anyway in just trainers and with no water, idiots! The path was really steep and demanding but it felt good to actually do some proper exercise again. It seemed to be never ending but we got to a good view point where we ended up getting naked for photos as there was nobody else around. We could see
the snow capped mountains just in front of us. We walked further up a trickling stream so I sucked on a rock as I was so thirsty! Proper Bear Grylls moment. We finally reached the top after two hours of tough trekking and a couple of small rock climbs. The views were incredible, looking out over the snow capped mountains in one direction along with the now tiny looking river and bridge below and we could just about see our car parked up. We sat up there for 10 minutes taking in the scenery and then had a quick descent, using the trees to stop us if we went too fast or lost control. We got to the bottom of the trail in really good time so we walked back to the waterfall to cool off. We then all dropped into a press up position and drank the crystal clear water from the stream, it was amazing after being so dehydrated and it was nice and cold too. Sufficiently refreshed we went to the pub for a beer and then drove home. However, we soon realised we were going to run out of fuel long before Christchurch, but there were
hardly any petrol stations around. We also passed a crashed car lying upside down in a ditch on the way back, which wasn't there on the way, so we quickly stopped and ran over to see if anyone was in the car stuck or injured. Nobody was there so hopefully everyone was ok. We finally reached a petrol station but it was closed and this theme carried on for miles. We somehow managed to drive over 50km on empty and reached a petrol station in Christchurch, phew! We made it home safe and after smashing a McDonalds we watched Anuvahood but were all knackered so they went to bed and I crashed on the sofa again.
After breakfast in the morning Freeman and Pone decided to play drinking game FIFA as they had a crate of beer from the night before! It was only about 10am! I was definitely not up for beer at 10am. Freeman conceded 6 goals in the first game so had to neck 6 bottles, as you can imagine they both got drunk quite quickly! I said I'd drive that day and let them keep drinking so I drove to Diamond Harbour. Them two jumped
off a pier and we then walked around the lake for a bit. It was a really nice day so we caught a few rays. On the way back home we got more booze and had some really nice fish and chips, they gave you loads and it was only $4, an absolute steal anywhere, let alone in New Zealand. We had loads of alcohol so that night we all drank at Pones and a couple of French girls he knew also joined us. The plan was to go out but after ring of fire we decided to just get hammered at his house. The plan worked and I ended up passing out on the sofa after having to neck the dirty pint!
One of the French girls woke me up in the morning as she came back into the house from her camper van to use the shower. I went back to sleep until I was woken up by Pone's girlfriend, who had just got back from Australia. Boy did good, she was really good looking, Irish and had good banter, winner winner chicken dinner! She didn't even bat an eyelid that two other girls were there with
us (take note English girls)! All the girls left so we drove to another harbour and i was too hungover to brave the freezing water but Pone and Freeman got in. Wish I had gone in now as they said they made them feel much better. We drove back, tidied the car, packed our bags and hopped in a taxi to the airport for our flight to Melbourne. Time to see what Australia has to offer.
New Zealand had been an absolutely incredible month, and my thanks must go to our Kiwi Experience Family and also Pone for his hospitality. New Zealand is a beautiful country with lots of adrenaline activities but it is also very under populated with only 4 million residents making it a very chilled out place to be. I must also mention the Kiwi people and how nice all of them were during our time there. Hopefully I will visit New Zealand again at some point in the future!
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Oz
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Christchurch, New Zealand 2014
Hi Liam, how's your Aussie trip get? I was wondering...