Christchurch…the last stand.
Monday, August 14th, 200615th August 2006
It is hard to believe that our time in New Zealand has come to an end. The seven weeks we have been lucky enough to spend here have flown by, I would highly recommend a holiday here for anyone who has never been! There is so much to see and do (and throw yourself off, which seems to be the National Sport), the people are great, and the scenery is incredible.
We have been here in what the locals tell us is one of the coldest winters in a long time. However, with the exception of a couple of rainy days, the weather has not stopped us from doing anything we have wanted. Infact visiting during winter has given us the opportunity to learn to snowboard, made the natural scenery that much more spectacular (you can’t beat a snow capped mountian range on a clear day!), enabled us to enjoy all the sights without the crowds that flock here during the summer, enabled us to stray where we want when we want (without having to worry about booking in advance), and all this at the ‘low season’ rates, which have meant that we could afford to stay that much longer! Finally, and perhaps best of all, visiting during the winter has given us an excuse to come back here again, to see the contrast with a NZ summer, which I’m sure is every bit as fantastic as the locals tell us! (Basically, I’m not jealous of the heatwave you have had back home, ok, well, maybe just a little bit!).
We have spent our last few days here in NZ in Christchurch, the main city on the South Island. Christchurch is a very English city, it has the feel of an old University town back home, you can even go for a ‘punt’ down the river Avon if you are that way inclined!
We have been very lazy since we arrived here, so there isn’t that much to tell you, basically, we just rocked up, spent a couple of days driving round, seeing the surrounding region, handed our car back, then spent the last couple of days enjoying the comparative luxury of a backpacker hostel once again, with days spent wandering aimlessly around the city centre.
The things that will stay with us from our time in New Zealand, in addition to the usual suspects such as the scenery, adventure, friendly locals, etc are;
1. The lack of people! Wandering around even the main cities on a Saturday afternoon feels like you have hit an English town on a Sunday evening. I guess thats down to their being only 4m people here (versus 40m sheep!) in a country much bigger than Blighty.
2. NZ are pants drivers! Maybe this is down to the fact they let the kids drive legally here (only 15 to drive a car!), but no one seems to have any consideration for other drivers, and they have a bizzare give way to right turning traffic rule which we’ve never really understood…..or maybe we’ve just been singled out in our understated, bright orange spaceship!
3. There are more boy racers here than burberry caps at an England International….whats more every town seems to turn into a race track once the sun goes down, with lads and lasses alike cruising the streets with gleaming alloys and the bass maxed out!
4. Smoke free is the way forward! There is no smoking inside any public places at all over here, it is surprisingly good to go out for a few beers and not stink like an ashtray the following day.
5. The passion for the All Blacks – unbelievable, they endorse everything, from breakfast cereals to the cars the boy racers utilise….I think they receive more coverage than Beckham and Rooney combined….but perhaps at least these fellas justify it on the pitch!
So, thats it for our time here in New Zealand, we head off tomorrow in search of the sun in Fiji, before making our way over to Aus (for some more sun), before heading back through South East Asia (some more sun) before we return for our own summer time next year….told you I wasn’t jealous of that heatwave you’ve been getting!
7th August 2006
Having dragged oursleves away from the excitement of Queenstown and our snow boarding adventures, we set out to complete our southern loop ... 
4th August 2006
From the moment we arrived in Queenstown our budget took a bit of a battering! We had overheard ... 
Chris and Charl