New Zealand - The Final Days

Tuesday May 29, 2018

We stayed at the Carter's Beach Holiday Park as long as we could (checkout was at 10 am) before heading out on the 4.5 hour drive across the country to Christchurch. The drive took up the majority of the day; the only time we stopped was to fuel up and for lunch, which was eaten in our van, pulled over on the side of the road haha.

We had booked a nice studio flat in the Southwark Apartments with a great communal kitchen/dining/living space (which we always seemed to have to ourselves). By the time we had arrived, checked-in, sorted out parking, and gotten all our stuff settled it was nearing dinner time. We decided to eat out on our final night and so began looking for places to go within walking distance. Strangely enough there were only a few options open, so we decided to try some Indian food at a place called Corianders.

It was a quick 5 minute walk to the restaurant that felt quite odd because of how dead the city was. For being one of the largest cities in the South Island I was expecting more of a night life; maybe we were in the wrong part of town, or it being a Tuesday night had something to do with that.  Either way Corianders was VERY good. The Lamb Tikka Masala was sooooo tasty. That about sums up the day. The majority of our focus was spent on getting from point A to point B, sometimes you have travel days like though.

Wednesday May 30, 2018

We didn't have anything but "explore Christchurch" planned for the day. First we had to make breakfast, pack up, checkout, and pay for another day's worth of parking. By the time that was all said and done it was probably about 10:30 am or so. The day was nice and sunny, so we took off on foot towards the Canterbury Museum.

On our way there we passed through a big shopping center, walked through some exhibit about what the government was wanting to build in a newly demolished area of town, and walked over the Bridge of Remembrance. It was probably a 20 minute walk from our flat to the museum, but nice to see the city by foot during the day.

The museum was pretty cool, free, and all about the history of the country starting with the Maori natives. We arrived around the same time a group of elementary kids did, so it was a bit chaotic at first. The place was pretty big though, so we were able to get away from them and enjoy our stay in peace and quiet.

After the museum we decided to walk through the botanical gardens, which were right next door. It hod gotten a bit chilly though, so we found a bench in the sun to people watch as we warmed up. By this time it was getting close to lunchtime, so we split a scone at the Ilex Cafe (hard to beat a good scone with jam and clotted cream!), and then walked through all of the greenhouses on the premises. There were four different houses to walk through; the Cunningham House was the largest with an extensive collection of tropical plants, the Garrick House contained mostly succulents and cacti, the Fern House contained exactly that, ferns, and the Townend House was full of lovely flowering plants. They were all really cool to walk through, well maintained, and did a great job of keeping us warm haha.

After the greenhouses it had warmed up enough to take a stroll through the outdoor gardens. We first walked over to Victoria Lake where we stumbled on a remote-controlled-yacht-club practice. It was the cutest thing I had ever seen. Probably 20-25 elderly men all fiddling with their little yachts before sailing them around the lake.

Not wanting to disturb the club, we decided to head over to the rose garden. It was, unfortunately, mostly dead haha. We should have known. We walked around the garden for a bit longer. The highlight being when we came across this massive tree! I can't remember what it was called, but it was an Australian native tree. Pretty cool.

By this point we had had our fill of the gardens and so decided to head back to the outdoor mall for some window shopping. On our way there we took a quick detour to see the ruined Christchurch Cathedral. It had been totally destroyed in a big earthquake in 2011 and was sadly still in a state of disrepair. Looked like it had been a really cool building though.

At the mall we walked through a cool Patagonia-type store where everything was extremely over priced before remembering neither of us was big into shopping of any kind haha. Instead we began looking for a place to eat dinner. Bacon Brothers was our final choice, known for their amazing burgers and sandwiches. It took us a bit of looking to find the place because it was located inside a foodcourt type area called Little High Eatery. We were expecting a stand alone restaurant hah. The burgers were all we had hoped they'd be and the service was nice and quick. I ordered the "Andy the Electrician" burger and John got the "Shane." Mine was more of a traditional burger while John's was loaded with hash browns, egg, sausage, etc. I took a bite of his and holy-moly was it dense. Good food though.

After our meal we wanted to stretch our legs some more so decided to walk up to the Christchurch Transitional Cathedral. I'm really glad we did this. As we arrived the boys choir was mid rehearsal, which was fun to sit and listen to for a bit. While we were listening and reading the small pamphlet that was given to us a nice gentleman came up and asked if we were visitors. He said he could tell because "regulars aren't given those pamphlets" haha. He proceeded to give us a nice tour of the "cardboard church" and told us a lot of cool facts and info that we wouldn't have otherwise known. Very nice guy, and fun to talk to.

From the church we had to kind of rush back to the car to return it to the rental place before it closed and get John to the airport before missing his flight. Luckily we arrived with 5 minutes to spare, hopped on the free shuttle, and were off. Our flights out of the country didn't quite match up as well as the flights in. John left late that night and I flew out early the next morning. I arranged to spend the night in a Pod at the Jucy Snooze, which was only a 10 minute walk to the airport.

We said our goodbyes at the airport and then parted ways for John to catch his flight and for me to experience staying in a Pod for the first time. (It really wasn't bad at all!) I had to wake up early, like 4 am early, the next morning to catch my flight, so my evening was spent showering, packing, and sleeping.

All in all it was a GREAT trip and we were both thoroughly satisfied and extremely happy to have been able to do it. I highly highly recommend visiting New Zealand if you ever get the chance.