On-the-Road Tales

On the bus once again for the long haul to Christchurch. Stopped for some volcano views along the way but otherwise straight on through arriving at Base Backpackers situated in the evening, dead centre in Cathedral Square. Explored around town via tram and did usual ‘before I leave a main city’ errands. The next morning, I picked up the shuttle to the airport and jumped a 1.5 hour flight to Auckland back up north. 3 hours later I was boarding an A340-600 to Bangkok.

So my 3 weeks in NZ has come to a close. Far too short a stay than the country demands but nonetheless a great introduction. The people are friendly. It is a backpacker haven, never having to pay more than 20$ or so for a dormbed though food was not so cheap and I would not give their cuisine great marks. Transport easy, Kiwi bus experiences and all. The scenery and nature are down right stunning. The local’s efforts towards protecting their environment makes you stop and consider if you are really doing enough back home. Overall glad I stopped by though I am ready to get back to ‘real travel’. As a fellow backpacker I met (recently in from S america) said – ‘everything here is so sterile’. It was a totally different vibe than the normal circuit because many people were staying on to work for a year so their backpacks included curling irons and cell phones. It was like a vacation from my vacation. Looking forward to culture shock once again…and on we go

Tags: Travel

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 21st, 2007 at 11:48 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.