Hallo Blogland.
So you may have thought I’d fallen of the face of the planet but I have not! I have recently been a little over some of the dirty laundry being aired online and therefore been avoiding coming online(except for work!). That has now all changed and I couldn’t care less. Besides, this blog seems to be fairly unrelated to all of that!
Anyway, I am in New Zealand at the moment for about 5 days. Steve and I have had a very very very busy past few weeks and a pretty stressful week before coming overe here, so we’re more than happy for a break, even a very short one.
My Dad has lived over here now for the last 12 months or so and as he’d given me money to pay for a trip over last September I thought it was about time I made good with my enf of the bargain.
We arrived in Christchurch Thursday night at around 11:30. Although, being that it was only 9:30 Australian time we were not really tired. After being picked up by Dad and Helen we headed to our hotel in the middle of Christchurch. When we arrived the others went to bed and we decided to have a look around. The hotel has a really cool concept, kind of like Formula One in Australia but much nicer. The rooms are very small but very comfortable. The beds are spectacularly comfortable and the shower head, although energy efficient, is quite powerful. These are my biggest two complaints with most hotels (small or big) so I must admit I was pretty impressed! There was also a groovy little ’sun’ light that woke you up with sunrays every morning, it was very peaceful. The hotel also had a couple of ’shared’ rooms where you could cook/smoke/read/watch tv (the rooms had TV’s too) or just chillout with other guests. There was also a bar/restaurant on the ground level. We didn’t really get a chance to use any of these facilities but it seems like a great idea. All that for only $80 night! We’ve booked another room for the night before we fly home.
The first day we had we travelled to Akaroa, about 80 km’s north of Christchurch. It’s a beautiful town that sits on the edge of a harbour and is the centre of what was once a volcano. The town was originally a French settlement of New Zealand and a lot of the shops/restraurant’s seems to really play on the French history 
(This suited me just fine! Who needs Paris, right?). It was a beautiful sunny day for this time of year so we stayed and had lunch in one of the local restaurants before heading back to Christchurch.
Friday night in Christchurch we went out to dinner @ Helen’s sisters house. The house was beautiful and had an amazing view. We had a very yummy dinner and met some lovely people :) Adam and Christy were unable to come as Christy had been unwell so once we arrived back at the hotel we had a couple of drinks with Adam whilst watching the Christchurch nightlife pass us by. After a few very late nights it was then time for bed and a bit of a sleep in.
Saturday morning meant waking up at a reasonable hour (9ish?) and going to buy Steve some jeans. We then had breakfast and headed to the Christchurch Art’s Cente. There is a market here on Saturday’s with a lot of hand made craft and New Zealandy type souveniery stuff. We bought fudge (typical) and some Kiwifruit chocolates as a gift to take home. We then had a coffee at the local cafe and headed to a shopping mall outside the city centre. The warehouse (!) in NZ is huge, about 5 times the size it is at home. I also picked up a handbag because mine had broken. We grabbed some groceries and then piled (really, piled high) into the cars to head back to the Motel that Dad has owned now for about four months. On the way we stopped at Maruia Springs but were a bit late to go for a swim in the springs so we had dinner at the Japanese restaurant attached. The food was beautiful and the staff were great :) We then headed back to the motel for bed. The rooms are much nicer than Steve and I had expected (we weren’t expecting anything terrible though)!. Beautiful linen and comfortable, warm rooms to sleep in. After a quick coffee we headed to bed to crash. The wind(!) and rain(!) continued allllll night. We thought we might wake up in China. We awoke to realise tha rain had stopped, briefly. We were cooked a nice got breakfast and then decided to go for a short road trip to Murchison. On the way we stopped at the waterfalls and boy were they falling! It seems lasts nights rain fell mostly into the river, it was hard not to laugh at the ‘danger! It is not safe to swim here’ sign. Once we were in Murchison we visited a kooky (I can’t think of another way to describe it) museum that had old dentist chairs and a lot of information/photo’s of the area around Murchison and Maruia. I was left a little perplexed that ‘old style’ telephone exchange was only retired in 1987, but I guess it’s a very small town. I indulged in a hot chocolate at the cafe and we’ve now headed back to the Motel for an evening of relaxation.
The holiday so far has been quite relaxing and despite a few moments of shivers we have kept reasonably warm. Steve and I are glad for a couple of days away from the phones even if we still have to the return messages now and then. We are greatful to have such gratious hosts too although Dad seems to worry too much we’re happy with his plans. We’re enjoying seeing what he finds interesting about the area and aren’t phased with anything he may plan (except if he intended on my bungy jumping…). It’s unusual for us to see so much greenery and the ‘autumn’ colours in the scenery is just stunning!
will post more soon,
<3 Katie
