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We woke to our last day with the camper late around 8am, had our final leisurely breakfast of cereal before
starting trying to pack up our stuff from the various cupboards back into our bags. Once we'd managed to get
everything packed away, we made a plan for our remaining few hours with the camper. This involved avoiding
the cyclone-destroyed bridge on HWY 79 outside Geraldine by way of the main roads, then heading towards the
mountains again towards Mt Hutt and finding a nice spot to pull over for lunch. The roads were scenic enough,
albeit once again arrow-straight, and afforded us a last chance for our favourite driving pastime of saying
Hello
to various farm animals. We tried to approach Mr Hutt ski resort, but were put off by the steep
gravel road so continued instead to Rakaia Gorge, where after pulling in to a campsite that was signed as a
picnic area, we found a nice spot near the river. Here we had the cream of mushroom cup-a-soup we bought way
back in Auckland, and I also had a mushroom omlette using the last of the eggs and mushrooms. Sat in the
sunshine it was very relaxing indeed.
After lunch I looked up the route to the camper drop-off point and decided against the most direct route as
that would result un us arriving too early. Looking at the map, I discovered a town called Sheffield
which became our last tourist stop before handing the camper back. It turned out to be a good choice, as it
turns out Sheffield had a famous pie shop! Despite having had lunch only recently, I managed to fit in a
delicious chicken pie, just to sample their award-winning pies!
From here it was only a few Km to the drop-off point and with the reserve fuel light on, we drove them slowly, whilst reflecting on the highlights of the trip, of which there were many.
At the drop-off point we wrote up the 4 issues we'd had - the waste water indicator light not working, the fresh-water hose pipe being split and too short, the fridge operating more like a freezer and the leak when it rained heavily - and handed them in as part of the hand-back. After clearing our belongings from the van and having it checked over, we had a conversation with the supervisor who offered us a NZ$700 refund - very generous! We then caught a shuttle bus to our hotel - the Quest Serviced Apartments - in the centre of Christchurch. We checked in to our large room and then I went for a walk, leaving Tracy reading in the room. I returned with a 6-pack of beer which we put in the fridge before heading out, taking a very short walk round the corner to a Thai restaurant where we had a very nice meal and a bottle of Singha beer before returning to the room for a relatively early night, a little meloncholy at the end of the road trip...
This is a little strange but we have no photos from this day - I guess we were just too busy enjoying ourselves!
After sleeping until 8am we woke and I went round the corner to the local convenience store to try and get
something for breakfast. I was pleasantly surprised to find the Sanitorium
breakfast cereal with
manuka honey that Tracy and I had grown fond of. Back at our room we consumed a bowl each whilst finalising
our plans for the day, and I went online to look at the necessary tickets for the Tram City Tour, the
Botanic Gardens Tour, the Punting on the Avon Tour and a ride on the Gondola. With that all done we left
our room and went exploring. First stop was the tram ticket office, which was very close to the hotel, where
we picked up the tickets, then we walked a couple of blocks to Quake City
a museum all about the 2010 and
2011 earthquakes that badly impacted the city. This was not only very informative - we remembered watching news
of the quakes but not the details. Whilst the 2010 quake was the stronger of the two, it hit in the middle of
the night so did extensive structural damage but didn't result in loss of life. In contrast, the 2011 quake
was smaller in magnitude but closer to the city and struck at lunchtime on a busy weekday. 186 people were
killed, mostly in the the business district in the centre of the city, close to where we are staying. The
exhibition included videos of those caught up in the it recounting their personal experiences and after
watching a few we were both moved to tears.
Back outside, the empty lots and still boarded up buildings served as a constant reminder of these awful events even 7 years later. We caught the tram and enjoyed a relatively short ride, complete with informative commentary from the driver/guide down to the museum and botanical gardens. With a little time until the next tour of the gardens, at 1:30pm, we went into the museum and took advantage of its café.
The tour of the gardens was in a little green electric train
and again the driver was also our guide, and
he was both highly knowledgeable and hilarious, seemingly telling us the life history of every tree and plant in
the gardens whilst almost crashing into them! Needless to say I can't remember any of the names of any of the plants
or trees, but did take endless photos. I do recall the story of the New Zealand Silver Fern (Cyathea dealbata) though,
which is green on the top surface but silver underneath and the national symbol of the country. We stopped at one
of the greenhouses on the trip to see the ferns, tropical
plants, cactii, orchids and other exotic plants, but it was only a fleeting visit and I found myself clock-watching
as our punting trip was booked for 3pm. I needn't have worried as the last part of the garden tour was done at light
speed, with a quick trip by the side of the river scattering the mums and dads and their pushchairs as we went!
Once our garden race, sorry, tour, was over, we walked back down the river arriving in good time for our next
adventure. After checking in we were introduced to our punter
, Ryan, dressed like an Oxford or Cambridge
University student complete with boater hat, and we clambered aboard the punt. This proved rather painful for
Tracy as the seats were very low and she jarred her knee sitting down. But the gentle nature of being punted
up the river seemed to quickly soothe the pain away, and as Ryan explained about the flora and fauna at the
riverside, echoing the slightly crazy garden tour, we relaxed and enjoyed the experience. Travelling up the river
in a little boat with 4 other people and being propelled gently by a young man in shirt sleeves and a straw hat,
expertly weilding a long pole, was quite a joy. The whole trip took longer than the 30 minutes it was billed for,
lasting closer to an hour, and on the return leg we were lucky to hear the jazz band that had come to the gardens
for the regular Lazy Sunday
Concert. Very enjoyable indeed!
After a gentle stroll through the gardens to get our legs moving again, we caught the tram once more, getting on
at the stop we'd disembarked earlier. With a different driver/guide, we were treated to more stories about the
history of this once beautiful city. I say once beautiful
because it's now pock-marked with empty lots and
there are construction sites everywhere. What is left of the old Christchurch is still beautiful, even if some of
it still bears scars of damage. Some of the new buildings are very nice, but a little modern and soul-less in my
opinion. The cathedral is perhaps the most stark example of the damage ravaged by the quakes. Until recently there
was disagreement over what to do with it - rebuild as was, or pull it down and start again. So it's been left
almost as-was after the quake, with ugly metal structures and concrete blocks shoring up the remains to avoid
further collapses, and a perimeter barrier keeping the public distant. Even so, it's evident it suffered
tremendous damage, the iconic spire tower that stood at the side gone and the entrance and front facade also
just a pile of rubble.
We disembarked the tram at the end of St. Regent's Street, a colourful street full of little restaurants, café s and artesan shops, the upper floors of which are decorated in a Spanish fishing village style, painted in pastel colours and idenical on the opposite side of the street. We chose a little Thai place to return to for our dinner and after returning to the hotel and freshening up that's exactly what we did. The food was good and when we finally left and strolled back to the hotel we knew we'd had yet another excellent day.
A much lazier start to the day today as we had arranged to meet Debra, Lois' daughter, at our hotel between 10 and 10:30. She arived promptly, bouncing in to the hotel lobby and instantly brightening up what had started as a dull day. A short walk to her car was filled with lots of chatter, as though we were old friends who'd not seen each other in a while and not the complete strangers we actually were. She then drove us out of town to the Gondola, the conversation continuing in full flow. We rode the gondola up the mountain as the sun started to make an appearance and the wind rocked the carriage from side to side. At the top we wandered around the exterior viewing area, almost getting blown off when turning the corner to go round the side of the building. The view was good, although the city is very large and spread out without any really notable landmarks - the Cathedral Spire would have been relatively easy to spot even from this distance. The view form the side of Littleton Harbour made up for it, though, the bright green water mottled with shadows of the few remaining clouds. Once back in the relatively calm environment of the café, we hada drink and a cake and chatted away for a considerable time, before dragging ourselves away and through the gift shop to catch the gondola back down.
Back in the car we headed round via New Brighton and on to Willowbank Nature Reserve where we wanted to go to see
the famous Kiwi bird. What we didn't expect was just how extensive the reserve was and how wonderful an experience
it would be. On entering we bought some food, including a small pot of eel food
. Just inside the entrance was
a small stream with a jetty, from which we could feed the eels using long metal spoons. Tracy didn't hesitate and
within seconds was crouched down, several large eels all poking their heads out of the water next to the jetty
with their mouths open so she could feed them. I had a go too, surprised at how strongly the eels bit down on the
spoon, trying to pull it out of my hands. From here we passed by an enclosure with some fallow deer - young and
jouveniles only - and fed them too.
As we walked round the reserve we saw all sorts of animals and birds, including some friendly geese, wallabies, gibbons, parrots, pigs, donkeys and many more I can't remember. Tracy had an encounter with a Kea, one of New Zealand's notoriously naughty birds, which took a liking to the rubber foot on her crutch!
But what we'd come to see were the Kiwis and we'd been told the refuge had 5 of them, all housed in a very dark enclosed hut at the end of the park. When we finally got there it took a moment or two for our eyes to adjust to the lack of light (Kiwis are nocturnal) but it didn't take long after that to spot our first Kiwi, foraging in the ground less than a metre from the barrier that separate the walkway from their habitat. With no glass or other obstacle between us and this iconic bird, we stood in silence and simply watched. Then I spotted another one in the enclosure behind us, closer to the red light that provided the only illumination. I tried to get a photo, but with so little light it was always going to be blurred. We saw and spent time watching another 2 Kiwis, making 4 in total, before finally saying goodbye and heading out. Leaving via the gift shop (another fridge magnet), we went back to the car and Debra drove us back into town, dropping us off close to our hotel. It was emotional saying goodbye and we walked back to our hotel, vowing that we simply MUST return to New Zealand sometime.
With it now being early evening, a quick change of clothes and some research and we headed out to get dinner. Our first choice, a nice Italian close to the hotel was full, so we reluctantly continued walking, our feet already complaining after all the walking we'd already done. We walked up to where I'd spotted a nice looking Thai place on Saturday and thankfully it was quiet and could fit us in. We had a lovely meal - money bags, Tom Yam soup, Green Beef curry, Stir-fried Chicken and Caschew nuts) and a bottle of New Zealand Pinot Gris - a wine that's grown on us during our time here. The walk back to the hotel was contemplative, our last night in New Zealand.
I was woken at 2am by a text from Nic (one of our instructors) asking for the password to the CCTV as he'd just had his lovely MV Augusta F4 stolen from the yard. Poor soul, I know how much he loved that bike. It took a while to get back to sleep, my thoughts with Nic and what he must be going through. I'd hate to have my bike taken by some low-life scum.
I woke again just before my alarm was due to go off, only to fall asleep again to be rudely awoken by it. I got up and headed into the shower, only to hear my alarm go off again - I'd only hit snooze and forgotten to switch it off. By now Tracy was also awake, so much for me trying to let her have a lie in! After showering I popped to the shop for some more milk and we ate our last breakfast, then I went to get some bubble wrap to protect the wine we were taking home. On returning to the hotel we had a mammoth packing session, then took the bags downstairs and checked out, leaving the bags in the hotel ready for when we had to leave for the airport.
Free of baggage (see what I did there!), we went for a walk, first to the cathedral for a proper look, marvelling
at the sad lack of progress in restoring it over the last 7 years. Sometimes I wonder how we've got to the point
where we can procrastinate for longer than it takes to do something - it only took 40 years to build it in the first
place and we've wasted 7 years with the politics before even starting reconstruction. From here we walked to the
shopping area so Tracy could go in the Pandora shop and get a Kiwi charm for Katie and one for herself, and look for
some colouring books to take home. We got the former, but sadly not the latter, despite trying several shops. Then
we went to Canterbury Cheesemongers, a wonderful old-style cheeseshop where we bought some brie, red leicester and
emmental and some ciabatta bread fresh from the oven, then headed to the Botanic Gardens for lunch. We say by the
fountain and enjoyed the food (well, except for the emmental which was a tad strong!) and fed the birds, then went
to the café for a coffee. I'd hoped to see the National Geographic Top 100 Photographs
exhibition,
but sadly it ended on the 25th. So we formed another plan, to go on the hunt for the colouring books
Tracy wanted. This took us on a long walk round the city, but proved fruitless as it seems there are only 5 adult
colouring books on sale anywhere in Christchurch and none were what she wanted.
After a stop and rest by the cathedral we wandered back to the hotel where Tracy got changed for the journey home. We were then picked up by our chaufeur and driven to the airport where we dropped the bags off, passed through security without problem and relaxed in the lounge with a beer / glass of wine before boarding the flight to Sydney and onwards to home.
The end of another Holiday of a Lifetime
, and what a holiday it was. We abosultely LOVE New Zealand and its
people.
