First two weeks

We were up bright and early on the 1st July finishing up (starting) our packing and cleaning our little, rather grubby studio flat for inspection before we officially moved out. After only 6 months in our flat it had managed to disintegrate around us. We had reported a leak in our flat a few weeks before we moved out which the landlord told us wasn’t a problem so we ignored the constant tap tap of water falling into my old lunchbox. The landlord seemed rather shocked at how damp the flat was (I had also reported this months previously) and claimed not to have realised the leak was in the place where the water was constantly falling out of the ceiling… Luckily, she let us go charging us only $15 for the lightbulb in the bathroom which had blown about a month previously but we couldn’t find a replacement so we got used to showering and doing our business in the dark.

We waved a fond farewell to our little flat and managed to make the 3 minute walk with our backpacks on before suggesting we stop for a cuppa tea at the Picnic Cafe. I am not sure how I managed this, but this was the first time I had put my backpack on for longer than 1 minute and I was already struggling.

Picnic cafe

After our tea break we headed for the ferry to the South Island. Marky likes to comment that he is unaware of another country that is split in half by a sea… I can’t think of one either.. It was bloody freezing but we still decided to go on the deck and wave goodbye to the North Island. I had temporarily forgotten I get seasick and had to spend most of it with my head in my hands shaking back and forth. I suddenly cheered up when I saw people swimming in the middle of the sea and then realised they were dolphins – so exciting!!!

  
We arrived at our first stop, the sleepy town of Picton and found our hostel – one of the best hostels in New Zealand. I think we were spoilt in this hostel and gave us a false impression of things to come – scones for breakfast, free bikes, a jacuzzi, electric blankets – it was brilliant! We spent three nights there. We spent our first full day walking across the Picton Sounds in brilliant sunshine – we are such ‘trampers’ these days! Our second day was spent on the sofa watching many films as the rain did not stop – this was also a thoroughly enjoyable day!

Our next stop was Kaikoura – meaning ‘meal of crayfish’ in Maori. We had a little drama here with the YHA claiming we had booked and stayed the previous month (lies!) and they had no room for us to stay. Whilst I sat sulking Marky managed to book us in to another hostel so all was ok.

We had just settled into the hostel for the evening when 20 ‘young lads’ came into the communal area and started to play drinking games for one of their birthdays. Realising we were far too old to do anything but run away, we hid in our room (which was conveniently right next to the communal area) and tried to work out what game they could possibly be playing involving chanting and stamping and yelling. After a couple of hours we heard the lads head out and snuck back into the communal area, a couple of minutes later two girls joined us and we discussed how old we all felt. We had just settled into the Coronation Street omnibus when the lads returned and starting the games again.. Off we went to bed.

Kaikoura is a really lovely, pretty place surrounded by the mountains and the sea – I could have just sat and looked at the views all day long! Whilst in Kaikoura we went to the seal colony and saw baby seals and did a huge walk around the peninsula.

  
  

Our next stop was Christchurch, only a three hour bus trip from Kaikoura – also known as the bus trip from hell! Unfortunately half an hour into the journey I started to feel a tad queasy, five minutes later and I had managed to throw up all over myself, my chair and pretty much the whole bus… To make matters worse the bus was very full so I was sat next to a poor random girl instead of Marky… And if that wasn’t bad enough – I had just had a tuna sandwich for lunch.. Blergh. Needless to say it was a very uncomfortable and embarrassing journey!!!

Christchurch had a really strange feel to it, all due to the earthquakes it had in 2011. The earthquake practically destroyed all of the city centre so now it is just a centre of building works and rubble. The centre itself just seemed empty and it was hard to imagine what it was like before the earthquakes. We stayed with some really interesting people – one being a teacher who told us about how hard it was for the kids at his school having nowhere to go and hang out. Another couple we stayed with were recruitment consultants who came after the earthquakes as there was a lot of opportunities for them during the rebuild. Everyone we spoke to had their own stories of how it affected them which was so interesting but sometimes very sad. The people who live there are so proud of their city and really do go out of their way to show it off – we even bumped into a guy on the street who owns a posh restaurant (we later found out that Prince Harry went there when he was in NZ) who decided to give us a mini tour of the city. It would be interesting to go back in 5 years time and see how the city looks then. We also went to the Antartica Centre in Christchurch which was amazing – we could have spent days in there! It had lots of penguins that would not have survived the in the wild as they had things wrong with them. It also had 4d films and a snow storm and lots of fun things!

  
  
  

Whilst in Christchurch, we spent two days doing the Tranz-Alpine train. The train goes across the country from Christchurch to Greymouth through (as the name suggests) the Southern Alps. It was really pretty and peaceful, a very nice way to travel!!

  
Our next stop was Lake Tekapo, drugged up on travel sickness tablets and making sure we sat with the driver, the journey was uneventful and quite enjoyable! The lake was absolutely stunning – the prettiest lake I have ever seen… Yes, even prettier than Chipstead Lakes!! The area is said to be one of the top places in the word for star gazing and it was amazing, we were so lucky that we had three days of perfectly clear skies and sunshine which meant it was perfect for star gazing. One of the top activities suggested to do in Tekapo was to walk up a mountain to the observatory – it was lethal! The snow had turned to ice so it was like trekking up an ice rink but it was worth it for the tea and cake and views at the top! We decided to walk back down the long way round and 6 hours later we arrived back to our hostel. On our final day here we went to the hot springs – we chose to go in the evening which was really odd as it was -2 degrees outside but sooo hot in the springs!

   
We are now in Akaroa, which is a French settlement build on an ancient volcano. It is really quaint and cute but pretty dead in the Winter! Yesterday we went on a nature cruise which was amazing!! We saw hector dolphins (the smallest dolphins in the world) and more seals and lots of birds (we are really into bird watching now!!!!) We leave here in a few hours and the weather isn’t too great – so have found the library to relax in 🙂

This is a dolphin… I was very proud of the photo but Marky isn’t impressed

Titanic moment

Sunny…. Akaroa

  

Write soon! xxxxxxxxxxxxxx