Anyway, I am safe and I intend to stay safe, so don't worry about me. Enough of that.
It was still raining. We didn't want to take the car out in the city so we walked around getting to know the area a little. When we got back to the hostel we made plans for the coming days. You will just have to stay tuned.
Tonight is Saturday and I am in bed at 9:00. When Laurie and I were hiking the AT and it was Saturday, we would always say another Saturday night on the AT and we would count how many more Saturday nights we would have left. It is not like I want to rush this trip, but I wouldn't mind having a date on a Saturday instead.
March 30, 2003
Last night at the hostel was not very pleasant. There were a bunch of young kids drinking in their room which was next to ours. They were loud, obnoxious, and rude. I asked them once if they could try to be a little quieter. It didn't work. They eventually went out at 11:00 and it was peaceful enough to get to sleep. It didn't last though, because they came back, just as loud and probably drunker, about 1:00. Eventually, it got quiet and I could go to sleep. I was actually nervous about asking them to be quiet, you never know what drunks will do.
Laurie and I decided to say something to the hostel manager. She was very understanding. She actually knew before we told her. She said that they would not be there tonight. She said that these people booked on-line.and that if she knew they were kiwi that she wouldn't have allowed then to stay because the young ones will come in just to party.
Laurie and I walked to Cathedral Square. We read that they had guided walks about the city. It was suppose to be only 2 hours, but it lasted 2 3/4 hours. The guide, Vicki, was terrific. She started with a quick mention of the layout of this area. Christ Church is close to Banks Peninsula which has two extinct volcanos Aven River runs through the city. You can watch the punts glide through the water and under the quaint bridges. There are greens, flowers, and large weeping willows on the banks. We learned a lot about the history of the founding fathers of Christ Church, who came from England in the 1850's. People came over in ships that were only 125' long. They came with all of their belongings, which included furniture. They had a doctor on board and for every person that came off alive, he got two pounds (English money) and for every person that died, one pound was taken away. Vicky gave us a colorful description of the original Europeans and you could visualize the old town by her narrative. Next we saw some of the old buidings and churches. The work in those days always amazes me.
One of the buildings that she pointed out was an all girls school. She told us a story about two girls that went to that school. Later there was a film about the two girls and the lead was Kale Windot and the producer was Peter Jackson. This was well before Titanic and Lord of the Rings. Another actor that got his education at a private boys school here was Sam Neil.
We ended the tour going up in the elevator of the Crowne Royal to see the view of the city. I said to Laurie that the hotel was just a step above the hostel. I actually felt out of place there with my day pack, shorts, and sandals.
Vicki left us at the art museum and around the corner was a side street of food vendors all cooking and displaying their food. There was Greek, Thai, Czech, and Korean food. So that is where we had our lunch. From there Laurie and I walked across the street to the Botanic Gardens. It was nice but since it is fall there weren't a lot of flowers out. There were some houses; fern, cacti, rain forest and a bonsai area, which we enjoyed walking through.
Next door to the gardens was the Canterbury Museum. The entrance fee is by donation which they recommend $5.00. It was great, but much more than I can consume at once. The beginning was interesting because it started with the MOA Builders who were the real first inhabitants of New Zealand. Then it went through the history of change of the European inhabitants. They had an old snowmobile made by Pularis, which is US made. They had a good section of stuffed birds and a section on the Antartic explorers.
For a small museum it was great. The only thing is, I can only take so much of the reading of everything. So towards the end I just quickly walked through.
When we got out of there Laurie and I made our way back to Christ Church Cathedral. We read that there were stairs to the top of the bell tower where you could look out and see the city. So we took a quick walk up a narrow spiral staircase up 134 stairs.
We were luck to have a clear day to do all of this. We are now sitting in Starbucks (certainly not for me). and writing. It is about 5:45 and we will be heading back to the hostel for hopefully a quiet evening.
March 31, 2003
Today was not much of a day. It rained all night, but it seemed to have stopped when we set to leave. We walked back to Cathedral Square because I wanted to take some pictures and get some information at the visitor's center. In Cathedral Square they have a chess board in the square and the chess pieces are about 3 feet tall. It was set up and people were playing. We walked back to the hostel and then set off in the car. We were told that there was a nice view of the bay and port at Lyttleton on Summit Road. The only thing was the clouds were low, so we followed the road that was by the bay. We did stop at one spot and did an hour walk. We felt like we didn't want to get too soft.
From there we headed back to a wildlife park. When we got there it was really dark and threatening to rain, so we decided to skip the wildlife park. We turned around and headed for Hanmer Springs. I made reservations at the hostel there. It rained the whole time. There are some thermal springs in Hanmer, but because of the weather we just decided to move on. I am not complaining about the rain, but it does change your plan at times. So we drove til about 6:30 and got a cabin at Kiwi Park. We are in Marchism.
Not much here except some more adventure trips. The longest swing bridge in New Zealand is not too far away, so we will probably check it out tomorrow. I will just wait to see how the weather is.
