I haven’t
posted in a while, but this one is going to be long and action-packed so I hope
it makes up for the delay.
For some
blessed reason, the University of Canterbury has a three-week midterm break in
April. Apparently, it’s usually only two
weeks but the way Easter fell this year they ended up changing it to
three. How dare they. We decided to take full advantage of the
break and do some extensive traveling.
And by “we” I mean Danica and I essentially went on a honeymoon
together. The first part of our trip was
spent on the North Island in Auckland and Wellington.
Day 1: We flew
out of Christchurch at night and got into Auckland fairly late. We walked down Queen Street, which is the hub
of the city. Anything you could possibly
want/need is either on or just off of Queen Street. We walked down to the harbor and went to the
grocery store where we purchased our rations for the week: white bread, peanut
butter & jelly, and some fruit. This
seemed like a good idea initially, but if I never have to look at another
PB&J again it will be too soon.
Day 2: After surviving our first night in a
hostel (I slept on top of the flat sheet they gave us since it didn’t seem like
they changed the fitted sheets very often), Danica and I had some toast for breakfast
and made our sandwiches for the day and went on an adventure. We took a ferry across the harbor to a little
hamlet called Devonport. While walking
through the ferry terminal in Devonport, we passed a bike shop, and Danica had
the inspired idea to rent bikes for the day.
Alas, the price for individual bikes was too much for our budget…but a
tandem bike seemed cheap enough. While
our strategy was good, our execution was not as successful. After several failed attempts to coordinate
which almost resulted in us taking out a car and the guy that rented the bike
to us, we finally got a semblance of the hang of it. We biked around the beach with stops at the
Navy Museum and the war battlements of North Head before making our way to the
top of Mount Victoria, an extinct volcanic cone. By the end of the day, we were quite
proficient in the art of tandem bike riding, as long as we weren’t going up any
hills because Danica was a freeloader and never remembered to pedal. I paid her back by riding in the street
instead of on the sidewalk.
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| View from North Head |
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| Downtown Auckland from Devonport |
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| Devonport Beach |
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| Steps to the top of North Head |
We spent
the entire day in Devonport and then headed back to the city. After showering, eating another PB&J,
deciding we needed something other than that for supper, and getting a $5
teriyaki bowl, we headed to the Sky Tower Casino downtown. We had every intention of spending a few bucks
gambling but got so overwhelmed when we got there that we just headed straight
for the bar. The only open space at the
bar was next to two older gentlemen who bought our drinks for the rest of the
night. Well-played.
Day 3: We took a 2-hour roundtrip bus ride north
of Auckland to a beautiful beach called Long Bay. The scenery was incredibly beautiful and made
the never-ending bus ride completely worth it.
After spending a few hours napping and laying out we jumped in the water
for a little bit and watched as we got circled by a group of guys on the
beach. After about 20 minutes, two of
them finally came up and talked to us.
We exchanged numbers with them and made plans for meeting up in the city
the next night. At least that’s what we
gathered from their texts, but Kiwis don’t believe in predictive text so they
have weird text vocabulary. For example, “Wea bwtz u guys stayn? N u guys duen
anyfng 2mrw nyt?”. Translation: “Where about are you guys staying? And are you
guys doing anything tomorrow night?” Another example: “Aw yea mean soundz lyka
plan. I knew u guys drnk hardowt. Sowi 4 b.ing randum”. This one was a little
harder to decipher but here’s what we came up with: “Aw yeah man sounds like a
plan. I knew you guys drank hardout(?).
Sorry for being random.” It got
to the point where we couldn’t decipher them at all so we gave up.
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|
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| Long Bay |
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| Aotea Square Concert-The Hypnotics |
When we got back from Long Bay, we went to an outdoor
concert in Aotea Square right across from our hostel as we supped on veggie
pizza and chips (fries) after a failed hour long search for fish n’ chips. We went back to the hostel, showered, and
went out to a tavern with one of our hostel roommates.
Day 4: Kiwis take their religious holidays VERY
seriously. We decided to stay in the
city on Good Friday and quickly discovered that EVERYTHING was closed. We ended up doing a lot of walking around the
harbor and then ended up at Albert Park across from the University of Auckland
campus. The art museum happened to be
open so we spent some time in there and I am so glad we did. I’m not a soap opera person, but I have
gotten really invested in New Zealand’s soap Shortland Street. The show
is based in Auckland and I got really excited when I found the actual street
after which the show is named. That
paled in comparison to the surprise I got at the art museum. While trolling around in the modern art
section, I walked right by one of the main characters from the show and his
daughter. I really wanted to take a
picture, but I didn’t want to be one of those creepy fans. I played it cool and took a mental image.
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| Albert Park |
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| Harbor Sunset |
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| Date Night |
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| Honeymooners |
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Danica and I had a date watching the sunset on the harbor
with some Indian food before heading back to the hostel and showering to meet
up with the boys from the beach. Danica
and I brought essentially the same outfit to go out in, black tank dress and
vans, so I’m sure we looked real cool walking together. While waiting for the guys to find a parking
spot, we started talking to two Spanish guys who unsuccessfully tried to guess
which states we are from. After giving
them the hint that mine started with an “M”, their best response was “Mew
York”. I got them to “M-I-S-S” which they were absolutely certain meant I was
from “Misschigan”. FAIL. The one fact that they knew about Americans:
“You love “How I Met Your Mother!”. Yes,
yes we do.
We ended up not meeting up with the guys from the beach and
just did some bar hopping of our own, a good last night in Auckland.
Day 5: We flew
out of Auckland in the afternoon and landed in Wellington, NZ’s capital, around
5. After discovering that Danica and I
were not booked in the same dorm room at the hostel, we got upgraded to our own
double room. We dropped our stuff of in
our honeymoon suite, FINALLY found some fish n’ chips, and reunited with some
of our friends that were already in Welly.
We went out on Courtenay Place, but since the next day was Easter
Sunday, all of the bars closed at midnight so it was an early night.
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| REUNION! |
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| Finally found our elusive friends |
Day 6: Even
though it was Easter Sunday, the Te Papa Museum (NZ’s national museum) was open
and we spent a few hours exploring in there.
They have the world’s only on-display giant squid and a huge Maori
exhibit. After the museum we walked
along the harbor, parts of which had been completely redesigned for the Rugby
World Cup last year. We took a cable car
up to the Botanic Garden and walked around before finding a park to eat lunch
and sit in the sun for the rest of the afternoon.
When we got back to the hostel, Danica and I headed up to
the top of Mt. Victoria for our traditional Indian food and sunset date
night. This time we added a bottle of
wine and sat overlooking Wellington for a few hours.
Day 7: We woke up
at 5:30 AM to watch the sun rise from the top of Mt. Victoria and look for some
of the
Lord of the Rings filming
spots. Our ferry from Wellington to
Picton left at 8:30 AM and we spent most of the day traveling on the bus from
Picton to Christchurch. We stopped for a
little bit in Kaikoura, which is known for its whale watching, and got to walk
along the beach. The views were
absolutely incredible. This is one of
the most beautiful places I’ve seen since I’ve been here.
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| Sunrise over the harbor |
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| Picton |
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| Picton Harbor |
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| Kaikoura |
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| Beach at Kaikoura |
We had an incredible trip, but we were both ready to get
back to Christchurch and sleep in our own beds and not spend money for a few
days. We’re heading out to Queenstown on
Sunday for 5 days of tramping, bungy jumping, and sightseeing. Ruff-Reed Honeymoon Part Deux coming soon!
Happy trails,
Bess
Vocabulary
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Splash out-splurge
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Togs-swimsuit
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OpShop-thrift store
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Mufties-casual clothes
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Lollies-candy
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Pokies-slot machines
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Macca’s-McDonald’s
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