Colorful Christchurch

Welcome to Part 2: Colorful Christchurch! When I last left you, it was Friday night (March 30th). I had gone to bed early that night because Saturday morning was going to be an early one. Let's get to it!

SATURDAY, MARCH 31st
*BEEP!* *BEEP!* *BEEP!* In all honesty, I wasn't too thrilled when my 4:25 a.m. alarm went off Saturday morning...but it didn't take too long for me to get energized for the day! Yes, instant coffee was again necessary. Even though my flight wasn't until 8:20 a.m., I needed to be dropped off early because the rest of the family wanted to get to the airshow early. Jane's dad drove me there, which was incredibly nice of him. We had a good visit about planes, South Africa (his home), and miscellaneous other topics. There was a drizzling rain, but not too bad thankfully. I got to the airport around 6:15 a.m. and checked in my duffel bag. Since my flight was domestic, I didn't even have to go through security! There weren't that many other people in the airport, so I had no problems finding an empty seat to take a short nap. Then, I grabbed a quick breakfast of yogurt, muesli, and coffee (the good stuff).

Two hours went by surprisingly fast and soon we were walking across the tarmac to board the plane. It was small - only two seats on each side of the aisle - and we boarded from the back; which means my row 6 seat went from being pretty close to the front to being quite near the back! :) My seat was an aisle seat, but since it wasn't a full flight, I was able to move over and sit by the window. 

We took off on time and I got a view of Queenstown again, although it was less magnificent due to the cloudy, overcast morning. Still, I enjoyed looking outside and experiencing the amazing feeling of having a birds-eye view of the landscape below. Pretty soon I decided to close my eyes for a few minutes before continuing to enjoy the view. Just like that, we were landing in Christchurch (located on the eastern coast of the South Island) barely an hour later. It was clear and sunny - perfect weather for sightseeing! 

View leaving Queenstown. 

View entering Christchurch. 

I just played a couple quick notes before catching bus #29 to my hostel.

I got my luggage and figured out which bus to catch in order to drop my stuff off at my hostel. Originally, I was going to rent a car, but figured it didn't make much sense when I could walk to most of the places on my list of things to do in Christchurch. Thankfully a couple of people from California sat beside me with a map of the bus route and I figured out where my stop was! Guys, I haven't used any public transportation in New Zealand yet, so this was quite an accomplishment! Haha :) It was a short walk to my hostel, Dorset House, from where I got dropped off. While I wasn't able to check-in yet (it was 11:00ish and check-in wasn't until 2:00), I was able to store my bags in the office and go out to explore the city. My first impressions of the hostel were: A: Much nicer than the hostel I stayed at during my Tongariro Crossing trip, and B: Great location in comparison to the various attractions of Christchurch. 

First view of my hostel: Dorset House.

My intent when I left the hostel was to grab a quick lunch and then walk to the grocery store to buy some food for the next few days. I figured by then I'd be able to officially check into my room. But you know....new city, new sights, new ways to get lost... :) When I left, it was around 11:15 and I didn't return until close to 4:00! The first place I did go to was a nearby café called Black and White Coffee Cartel. I got an iced chai tea latte and a hot ham, cheese, and tomato croissant sandwich. For once, I didn't actually take a picture of my meal! While I was eating, I looked on my geocaching app and saw one was nearby. So, I decided I would first find a cache and then walk to the grocery store. And so began my lost adventure in Christchurch. Unfortunately for me, I have zero sense of direction and am completely reliant on my phone and Google Maps. Also unfortunately for me, Google Maps was giving me backwards directions where it would look like I should turn left, but actually had to turn right. Believe me, I tried to fix it but to no avail. The result of this was I ended up walking the "scenic route" to the geocache sight...and to most of everything I went to afterwards. :)

 Victoria Clock Tower

You'll notice why I titled this blog "Colorful Christchurch" - there is A LOT of graffiti throughout the city, due to the earthquake in 2011. It was a way for the people to heal from the destruction by replacing the ruined images with art. Christchurch is now ranked as a global street art capital!

 Geocache Find #1.

Here's the little reserve park where the cache was located - a peaceful break from the busy city life.

This is the moment I decided to walk to the grocery store. It was 12:30p.m. Obviously that didn't happen. :)

Right after I decided to go to the store, I saw on my map that the 185 Empty White Chairs Earthquake Memorial was nearby, so I went there first. This memorial is to remember the 185 people who died in the 2011 earthquake. It was intended to be a short-term memorial, but the positive response has caused it to become one of the main tourist attractions in Christchurch.

Geocache Find #2 - located behind the Empty Chair Memorial.

After I visited the memorial and found my second geocache, I continued down the rabbit hole of "Oh! Another geocache is close by...I should go find it quick!" You can see how my sightseeing time got extended as long as it did. :)

Here is where the 3rd cache was hidden!

Geocache Find #3.

Guess what? Cache #4 was close by...so I took another detour.

Geocache Find #4.

With the fourth find under my belt, I headed to Cathedral Square because, you know, it was nearby. This area is considered to be the very center of Christchurch and where the Anglican Cathedral (Christchurch Cathedral) is located. It was badly damaged during the earthquake and is still being repaired. There was a gentleman playing some music, but for it being the center of the city, it was not very busy.

Christchurch Cathedral

At this point, I finally decided it was time to go to Countdown and get food. From Cathedral Square, it was only about a 15ish minute walk but I then had a 30 minute walk back to the hostel to look forward to! Below are a couple of art pieces I saw while walking.

Massive spray paint cans!

This art piece shows twisting boxes of every year between 1906 and 2010. I found 1992 (birth year)!

Walking back from Countdown...groceries in hand. I completely forgot to double bag everything...good thing I had my backpack with as I ended up transferring most of the food into that halfway back due to the grocery bag ripping (don't worry - I didn't lose any of my food).

Since I had been walking so much, I decided I deserved a gelato break. I found the Vanilla Ice Truck (one of the oldest businesses in Christchurch) and got a simple vanilla ice cream cone. The recipe used dates back to 1907! I was given a generous scoop and I have to say, it was delicious!

I finally made it back to my hostel (at 4:00, like I mentioned earlier) and was able to bring my stuff up to my room. I was in a room with four other people, but nobody was around when I was there. After putting my food in the kitchen fridge, I sat down for a few minutes and had afternoon tea before heading back out to see more sights! :)

My living space for the next few days.

Next up was Hagley Park and the Botanical Gardens! There were MANY MANY willow trees lining the edge of the park...I felt like I was in Pocahontas! The park was massive - easily a place I could see myself going for a walk or to just relax had I had more time to spend in Christchurch. I continued on and found the Botanic Gardens, but everything inside the greenhouses was closed since it was after 4:00 when I got to them. That left me to wandering around to admire the variety of flowers and trees outdoors. I took quite a few pictures of it all, but I'll just choose a few to show below.

Willow Trees

 My favorite colored rose.

Check out the bee!

Video of the Rose Garden.

More and more flowers!

I climbed this tree - well just a short ways up. :)

This is a free museum that was closed, but I planned on hitting it up before I left!

I thought, "Hey! Why not?" I present to you, Geocache Find #5 of the day.

Once I found my final geocache, I headed back to the hostel on Dorset St. I made a pesto pasta and broccoli dinner, showered, and then relaxed. Three of my roommates were in the room, but the fourth one didn't arrive until late when we were all asleep. I was exhausted after the day's adventures and fell asleep right away!

STEP COUNT: 26,052 (Probably why I was so tired!)

SUNDAY, APRIL 1st

Happy Easter and April Fool's Day and Daylight Savings! That's right, we "fell back" an hour so now I'm 17 hours ahead of ya'll in MN. Because of this, I got a great night's sleep! What's my plan for today you ask? Just a quick journey to EDORAS (where my Lord of the Rings fans at?)!! The tour bus picked me up at 9:00 and I was off! We stopped to pick up a few more people and then began our drive to Edoras (a.k.a. Mt. Sunday). There were 13 of us, plus our guide, and we were from all over - Taiwan, Equador, Canada, USA, and New Zealand. We had a couple of rest stops to grab food or use the bathroom, but mostly we just drove. Periodically, we would watch clips from the film or behind-the-scenes moments to give us more of a background of Edoras. The scenery continually got more beautiful as we neared the mountains. My favorite stop was at Lake Clearwater. It had a magnificent view of the mountains, but not Edoras...yet. We walked around for about 10 minutes before completing the last short leg of the trip. The last stop was at a lodge where we were going to have our lunch after climbing and viewing Edoras. 

View from Lake Clearwater.

The tour bus and lodge!

We FINALLY drove down a gravel road and then we saw Edoras! The location of Edoras (Mt. Sunday) is on private property, but people have permission to go and hike the mountain. There was a small parking lot where we left the van, walked through a gate, and continued on down a gravel path. We had to hop over a small stream, cross a wooden bridge, and walk over another bridge where only one person could be on it at a time.

Walking to Edoras!

 The path we had to follow.

You can see the bridge on the right, where only one person could walk at a time and Edoras in the background!

Here's a picture of what Edoras looked like in the movie, just for reference. They actually built the main building you see on top, but the smaller huts and wall around were digitally added. However, you wouldn't ever know a movie set was there since they completely removed everything after filming the necessary scenes there.

Before we began the ascent up the mountain, our tour guide (Simon) showed us some pictures from the movie so we could see how they changed the landscape for the film. Then we continued on up! Once we were at the top, I just paused to look around. What an incredible feeling it was to know I was standing where an actual movie set was! Here's a panoramic video from atop Edoras.

The day was beautiful, sunny, and clear. Usually it is quite windy on Edoras, but it was actually quite calm when we were there - honestly it couldn't have been a better day. Simon showed us some more pictures from the movie set and then we were free to take pictures with replicas of Aragorn's sword, Gimli's axe, and the flag of Rohan. It was a completely nerd moment for us LOTR fans!

 The picture above is the exact spot where the red arrow is pointing!

If you look at the above picture, you can see the clump of trees on the left side. Below, you can see the same clump of trees (red arrow). In the movie, this area was used for the outside shot of Helm's Deep! 

If you look above and see where Aragorn is sitting on his horse looking at Helm's Deep, the red arrow below points to that exact hill where he was!

All too soon we were heading down Edoras and back to the lodge for lunch. We ate delicious gourmet sandwiches, a dessert, and sparkling wine. It was lovely. Then, we were back on the bus and headed to Christchurch. We had one more stop, but didn't spend long there. Still, it was a pretty view!

Don't mind if I do...:)

Our last stop before entering Christchurch.

There were a few more videos for us to watch on the way back, but it was an overall quiet ride. Perfect for resting! Simon dropped each of us back off at our locations. It was about 6:30 when I got back, and because of Daylight Savings, it was already getting dark. I made dinner, read, showered, and finished watching The Two Towers. It was a unique way to spend Easter, but it was an amazing day full of amazing sights!

STEP COUNT: 10,205

MONDAY, APRIL 2nd

Today was my last full day in Christchurch, so I had to get in the remaining sights on my list. My morning started off with a video chat with my family! It was so fun to see my aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, brothers, and parents. I ended up chatting with them for about an hour. :) After, I made breakfast and headed out on another walking adventure. My first stop was the free museum I mentioned earlier. It was full of Māori culture, European influence, social history, natural history specimens, and an Antarctic collection, to name a few exhibits. I didn't want to spend a lot of time there, but it was quite interesting to see everything!

Fred and Myrtle's Paua Shell House - Over 1,000 shells decorated the walls and house of this couple and now it's part of the museum!

An hour or so later, I left the museum and went to get lunch - scrambled eggs on toast and coffee. But first...geocaching! I went back to Cathedral Square and noticed a couple of other people searching the same bench I was going to look at. I watched them for awhile before asking if they were geocaching. They said they were and told me they were from the Netherlands! I found the cache, we all signed it, and then we were off to our next destinations (lunch for me). The weather was starting to change and soon it was sprinkling out. My lunch café happened to be near a gelato location, so I waited in line to get a delicious chocolate cone. Originally, I was planning on catching a bus to go do a hike where I would have a great view of Christchurch. However, since it was raining, I nixed that idea and went to a nearby playground - but think playground on steroids. There were a couple mini ziplines, rope climbing nets, and a water area in addition to the classic playground equipment. I chatted with my mom and got a fresh fruit froyo cone...yes another cone - don't judge. :) It was also delicious!

More graffiti.

The amazing playground.

Funky sculpture.

More graffiti.

I basically just walked around for awhile and enjoyed the graffiti, buildings, and geocaching. My second cache of the day took a bit longer to find, but I had success!

Geocache Find #2.

With the weather still overcast, and the sun setting earlier, I decided to go out and eat an early dinner. When researching Christchurch, Bacon Brothers was a restaurant that came up as one of the best burger places to go to...so I did! I, of course, got a little lost...but I found it and placed my order. When paying, I had to say where I'd like to be if I could be anywhere in the world (I said Greece...I couldn't think under the pressure!). There were a few tables nearby so I grabbed one and waited for my buzzer to go off. A girl (Tina) asked to sit with me while she waited for her movie to start at the nearby theater. Turns out, she was from Switzerland, staying at the same hostel as I was, and flying on the same flight back to Auckland the next day. Needless to say, we hit it off but unfortunately she wasn't living near me back home on the North Island. Tina left for her movie and I enjoyed my delicious meal. Bacon Brothers gets a thumbs up from me!

While I was eating, it rained pretty hard out but it had finished by the time I left. I took a quick detour on my way back to the hostel to find one last geocache of the night. 

The side of the movie theater Tina went to.

Geocache Find #3.

Random finds while walking in Christchurch.

Back at the hostel, I packed up my bags and read for awhile before heading to bed.

STEP COUNT: 14,340

TUESDAY, APRIL 3rd

Today was my last day in Christchurch. I had a few hours to kill before catching the bus to the airport, so I went back to the park and Botanical Gardens to get a look in the greenhouses. It was a beautiful day to be outside...I wished it had been like that yesterday! There were more beautiful flowers, ferns, and cacti, among the many other plants.

I climbed a tree.

Probably my favorite find in Christchurch - very cleverly hidden!

I know...but I had to! :)

Hagley Park.

All too soon I had to go back and grab my bags from the office since I had actually checked out before going to the park and gardens. There was one last geocache on the way to the bus stop, so I naturally had to find it...and I did! I met Tina at the bus stop (after I walked back and forth across the street looking for the stop! That was embarrassing.).

Geocache Find #2 of the day and final find in Christchurch.

We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare. After checking in our bags, we grabbed a quick lunch and chatted until it got closer to our boarding time. We weren't seated next to each other on the plane, but I had a window seat! 

 View leaving Christchurch.

View entering Auckland.

The plane landed on time. Tina and I said goodbye and I waited for the rest of the family to fly in from Queenstown. They arrived about 30 minutes after I did, so it was perfect! We had the shuttle bring us back home and it was getting dark by the time we arrived. It seemed only fitting to end the vacation with a beautiful sunset since we started it with a sunrise.

STEP COUNT: 11,132 (not accurate due to my watch dying before the end of the day)

My time in Christchurch was filled with quite a bit of walking, sightseeing, geocaching, and gelato eating. It was wonderful! I enjoyed exploring a city alone and was able to have a few days of relaxation before getting back into the work schedule. Overall, I enjoyed the location of Wanaka better than Christchurch just because there was more nature (mountains, hiking trails, a lake, etc.) nearby. Still, I'm glad I was able to spend the few days in Christchurch that I was able to because of the unique artsy feel of the city. And I met a "one day" friend! :) Haha

When I came back from the airport, there was a lovely package waiting for me full of Easter treats and more....a HUGE thank you to the amazing people who sent it (you know who you are!). I also got a card from a friend that week so I was able to enjoy a bit of home. This past week was the last week of school before a 2 week school holiday for Emily. I will have her full time during this vacation - we are going to be doing some fun things! :) We had a pretty good storm Tuesday night (10th) - strong winds and rain. There were many tree branches broken and on the street the next day, along with rubbish from the garbage cans. It was quite a mess! Areas of Auckland lost power and it took a few days for some people to get their power back. Thankfully, we never lost our power! The temperature here is getting a bit cooler now - the hot summer days are done. But! I'm embracing the nice fall temps (not so much the rain yet).

One of the MANY branches on the street after the storm.

Thanks for sticking all the way through to the end of this blog...I know it was a longer one! Hopefully I do some more exciting things in the next couple of weeks so I have something to write about on here! 

Until then - 

Krista