Activity Summary
Sunday 8th January - Day 129 (continued)
Drive to Christchurch
Walk around Christchurch
Monday 9th January - Day 130
Onawe peninsula
Akaroa town
Lyttelton
Christchurch gondola viewpoint
Tuesday 10th January - Day 131
Christchurch
Riverside market
Botanic gardens
Christchurch tram tour
Summary
Christchurch
The city has a pretty rough recent history with the earthquake in 2011 killing 185 people, most of which in the same isolated few buildings that should not have been inhabited post another minor earthquake some years beforehand. The major earthquake wrecked the city and as a result a massive regeneration project has made the city look almost brand spanking new with a focus on greener development and a completely rethought layout / application for locals.
We both really liked the city. Its main area was pretty small and is something we both like in being able to walk across it very easily. The abandoned areas due to the earthquake were pretty telling but the almost blank blueprint seemed to be doing good things in making the city much more desirable as a place to frequent. Luke could have seen himself living and working here (we found all the big 5 accountancy firms naturally), with the big draw to it being the adventure playground that is South Island NZ. Nicola however less so.
Accommodation
Christchurch - Riverlands Holiday Park
Number of nights - 3
Price per night per person - £14
It was a bit of an unusual campsite with a whole lot of space but not a lot of people and those that were there were a bit weird and not standard campers. But there was plenty of space for the tent on good ground, a small kitchen which was empty whenever we used it and the TV room comfortable enough, minus the point when a slightly strange dude made us pack up and leave.
It was about 20 minutes north of Christchurch but a lot cheaper and driving in was so easy so this worked pretty well for us.
Diary
[Continued]
The drive from Kaikoura continued to be uninspiring. Once at the campsite we pitched up and having the rest of the afternoon / early evening unplanned we drove the short way to Christchurch. Parking was a little confusing as it usually is the first time arriving in a city, but we managed to find a free spot on the outskirts of the CBD and therefore only had a short walk in.
We had a nice walk around the central parts of the city, took in some sights and marvelled at the clarity of the city river. Ain’t no way you’d get that glory running through Enfield.
We stopped by the memorial of the 2011 earthquake victims and had a bit of a read up about the disaster.
When we got hungry we decided to leave and go back to the campsite rather than indulge in restaurant food. Very well behaved of ourselves we thought but Luke did make the promise he was going to eat himself silly at the Riverside market when we returned in a few days.
At the campsite we met an older man who appeared to be travelling by himself who was nice enough but a bit odd. It took a lot to duck out of conversation from him, the worst being when Luke was blowing up the airbeds using the car cig lighter port at 10pm which is loud enough as it is but to then pause, talk and redo was quite antisocial. This was also after being chased out of the TV room by a guy who was a long term resident but wouldn’t stop talking to us about incredibly mundane things and we clearly weren’t in the mood.
In the morning Luke said hello again to his old man friend who started asking him about Northamptonshire cricket, of which he knows absolutely nothing and subsequently told him the county cricket team doesn’t exist and he was confused. Only to be told by Nicola he was incredibly wrong.
Our day was some driving and short walking around a peninsula just south of Christchurch. The first stop was the Onawe peninsula which Luke regularly referred to as the dingleberry peninsula for its quite hilarious map formation. After parking up in a very tiny and crowded car park with a sheer drop on one side, we set off for a walk up the Onawe Pa walk with nice views of the bays. The views themselves were nice but we felt they were fairly similar to areas we would get in the UK.
Next we drove over to Akaroa town which was strangely French inspired. The street names were all French and names ‘rue’ while the French flag stood firm in the middle of the town. Rather unexpected.
We had a walk through the town where we stopped to eat our packed lunch and then continued over to the lighthouse which Luke immediately associated with BDO as it was brimming with the colours of his old firm.
We did a short loop of a forest track near to the town and then over to the car in a sort of hurried fashion as we had decided at the last minute to get the gondola up from Lyttelton with views over Christchurch.
After driving for an hour our cheap nature came crawling back like a vicious overlord retaking control over his minions and settled on driving up to the viewpoint rather than take the gondola. Turns out this was completely the right decision; the gondola is expensive, a short ride and the views are nothing special so driving to the top via the very scenic road to the viewpoint from Lyttelton with wicked views over Christchurch and its spit was pretty cool. And it was free.
There is a fairly steep hill walk up to the top of the gondola viewing platform but it’s incredibly short and Luke feels it adds to the experience. We had a walk around the platform but the thing that peaked our interest the most was the monster cruise ship docked in Lyttelton. It turns out a friend he worked with at BDO was on that cruise ship touring NZ and we had missed each other by a few hours - although the schedules of activities on these things are very tight so it would have been a bit difficult to arrange a beer. Hilarious coincidence however.
Once back at the campsite we chilled and didn’t speak to a single other person which was a relief.
Today was an important day as Nicola was going to finally get some walking boots that didn’t wreck her feet. Her old walking boots, while once upon a time had been good, had deteriorated rapidly and in turn were taking chunks of her feet each time she wore them.
The first stop into town was a specialist outdoor store and probably about an hour of Nicola trying on a whole array of walking boots. While the selection was decent, the vast array on offer in the UK seemed better but she had to fork out the cash given the excessive walking activity that awaited over the next few weeks. It appears she certainly made the right choice as she has had minimal problems post walking the East side of the Southern alps and has made her (and in turn Luke) infinitely happier.
We walked into the CBD from the outdoor store as it wasn’t all that far and parking was free. Luke was vying for some Belgian waffles but the place we had scoped two days previous was closed according to google (turns out it bloody wasn’t) so we went straight to the Riverside market. Here he made his slight schoolboy error and ordered waffles from the market, which were delicious, but Nicola had taken so long shopping that it was not breakfast time. It was basically lunchtime but he had overlooked this because he was so hungry having not eaten breakfast and was so determined for sugar.
After eating Luke forced Nicola to have a short walk around town but we only got 15 minutes in before we turned tail and straight back to the market for food. Nicola had an array of Japanese cuisine while Luke grabbed some fried chicken. Nicola’s was decent but Luke’s was not and his promise to eat himself silly had failed miserably.
We had already walked around a fair amount of the city so decided to pay for the tram experience on the understanding that the drivers would give some interesting spiel about the city and where we were. Sadly the first tram we got on was packed and we could barely hear the guy so it all seemed like a waste of time and money (as the city can be easily walked).
We stopped off at the botanic gardens, as this was the furthest stop away from the city, for a short walk around before jumping back on a tram. This guy was a lot more interesting, coherent and not busy so we rode that out as long as we could before getting dropped as close as we could to the car and then back to the campsite.
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