Fudge-tastical!

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Wednesday 1st November

Laura - Paul set the alarm bright and early this morning so we could go and book a hire car for tomorrow onwards. He dragged me out of bed and we managed to get one booked for tomorrow, at a bit of a bargain price. That done, I took one look at the grey morning sky and crawled back into bed.

An hour later and the sky had turned blue so I was dragged out of bed once more and we made our way into town (after a bowl of Rice 'Bubbles', are they still called 'Krispies' back home, we were confused?!).

Christchurch is a very lovely and very tiny city. We started our day at the Cathedral, a celtic/gothic looking building in the town square. There was a Holy Communion going on inside so we didn't linger for long, but it was very pretty. Next we took a walk around the art gallery, where we amused ourselves laughing at some pretentious travellers, one of whom was wearing a black tutu over her jeans!

We had lunch near the art centre, which was once a university. The buildings are lovely, and according to Paul (I've never been), they look a bit like Cambridge University. Tucked into a corner of the art centre was Paul's idea of heaven - a fudge shop. We spent far too much time in there, eating far too many free samples. Paul walked out eventually with a huge grin on his face and a bag full of treats.

After that, we strolled around the lovely botanic gardens, smelling the roses and 'quacking' at the ducks. Back at Cathedral Square, a legend had emerged. His name, 'The Wizard'. He is a very strange religious bloke who stands around talking nonsense at a statue, and any school kids who stop to have a giggle. It seems like he is the local entertainment, and he even makes it into the guidebook! Very bizarre.

We went back to our amazing little hostel (it's like a quaint cottage!) and cooked New Zealand's finest, lamb! It was very yummy. Did some washing then went for a wander into town.


Thursday 2nd November

Paul - Wow! New Zealand is amazing. Today's drive was fabulous but more of that in a second.

I think Laura and I were quite sad to leave our cosy hostel/cottage and move on but we did get the bonus of picking up a brilliant new car. It's got power steering (shock!), air conditioning (woo!), it's clean (bonus), it's small (um...) basically it's great. After driving the wrong way down the highway for 5 minutes we turned around and headed in land to the Southern Alps. And what a breath taking sight they are.

After a couple of hours driving through awesome scenery, involving the obligatory sheep and the CUTE LITTLE LAMBS, we arrived at Lake Takebo. It's simply gorgeous. This is possible the nicest view we've had on all our travels. There's even a tiny little church on the edge of the lake where a wedding was taking place (bizarrely no guests - maybe the people of Takebo don't have many friends?).

Decided we'd stay the night as it's so beautiful and checked into another lovely hostel. It even has a log fire much to Laura's delight. She still complained about the cold when we were strolling around the lake later in the evening. Fun over (we skimmed stones for an hour, watched the sunset over the mountains (fabulous!), fussed a cat) we walked back for hot chocolate before one last look at the lake with the stars out. It was wonderful!

We'll put photo's of the lake on tomorrow and let you enjoy Christchurch for now.

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Comments

[Neal]

Fudge shop
Alrighty Paul and Laura, as usual sounds like travels are goin great, I actually remember the art centre with the fudge shop in christchurch, I dislike u immensely for reminding me of when i was travelling carefree, my highlight of this month is not exploring a new country but my practical exam at the end of the month, I get to enjoy being belittled by people who know far more than i do about the subject i have to explain to them. After this i get 2 weeks in north wales on placement. Paul you will be glad to know Saha still puts minimal effort in keeping in contact with either myself or Andy Lee in fact its like he wants us to stop keeping in touch. As far as I can ascertain, the cumulative interesting events in our lives score low on the wow scale. Interestingly though another friend of ours who i will not name but studies the same course as myself recently got so pissed he ended up locked outside his flat in only his boxers with know recollection of how this unfortunate event came about, this story was told to me by the ever informative Mr Andrew Lee. Knowing the past alcohol related history of this particular friend i have no doubt the incident did occur. Enjoy New Zealand both of you and do the nevis bungy in queenstown if cash allows

[poorly dad]

skimming
never mind skimming stones my boy, its about time you started skimming emails to would be employers - do you remember 'get it down and play' Buckley is back at town a coach after my own heart.

[Mum]

Map tossing
You two are obviously no better than i am when reading a map then - i too can head down the motorway in the wrong direction - fortunately for you laura, paul would be calmer than his father, who gets a tad irate to say the least - i bet laura didnt end up throwing the map at a motorcyclist.

[Craig]

Gald to hear the wizard is still going strong, I suspect he is actually paid by the local tourist board as he seems to be the memorable attraction in Christchurch. Keep enjoying yourselves, take care Craig