Awoke in Lake Tekapo and got straight on the bus bound for Kaikora, but en route, we were going to drop a load of people off in Christchurch. After the quake last year, Magic bus doesn't stop overnight there anymore, but instead has 2 nights stopover in Kaikora. Christchurch was said to have been a beautiful city, and from what we saw, I believe that. Some of the university buildings and many churches have the classic British look of them, it was just so sad to see so much damage to them. One big uni building was shored up with fabricated steelwork that looked like scaffolding, all of it's gargoyles and other stone decorations had either been removed or fallen, and a lot of ply and sheet steel was fixed covering apertures at high level. We didn't see the cathedral, but I don't know how much is left now that it has been decided that it's too expensive to bring back up to standard so are dismantling.
You can see that construction (or rather, demolition and refurbishment) is booming, and now that the scale of destruction earthquakes can have on Christchurch is apparent, a lot of people are leaving, which is sad, but we've been told that the Irish are picking up the slack! Due to the Irish economy being up the swanny, and the number of skilled trades needed to rebuild the city, NZ have been actively seeking Irish people to go over, and they're going over in droves. Not quite enough to balance the people leaving, but very good all the same.
Enough of that. We dropped off people, stopped at a cafe which is also a centre dedicated to Antarctic projects (as it's a last base to stop at before heading there for civilian and military groups) for our lunch stop for the last stop. We arrived in Kaikora around 3, and didn't do much really. Jo and I plus a saffer were the only ones in our hostel, which was an eco-friendly place seemingly staffed entirely by European stoners. We wandered into the town, wandered back, made dinner and sat chatting with people in the hostel for the rest of the night.
The next morning, Jo and I were to spend the longest away from each other in 5 months. She was going to watch dolphins on a boat, and I was going sea-fishing. The total time apart was 4 hours.
I don't know how exactly th dolphin watching was; you'll have to read Jos blog for that; but the sea-fishing was great. There was only 7 of us on the boat, and we stopped and saw a couple of dolphins playing around us, then a bit further out we saw a little blue penguin swimming in front of the boat! We got out to 80m depth, got some big juicy bait on and went for it. I was amazed; the second the reel was about 70m out, they were biting, and no sooner than you got to 80m, you had 2 on the line. Just a shame they were so bloody far down - the longest part was reeling them the whole way up! Albatross' were bloody everywhere too, and I accidentally caught one when it went for my bait as I was just putting it over the boat, so was a bit fruity having this bird with about 2.5m wingspan flapping away at me! Luckily the old dude (Jerry) whose boat it was sorted it and I got back to catching fish instead of birds. We carried on, and a little japanese girl who kept letting out hundreds of metres of reel got her line tangled with mine, but the biggest knot was around her own line, mine just unhooked from hers, so the old dude decided to cut out the tangled section, and retie it and let the other bit drop. I was holding the middle bit, and it felt like it had a bit of weight on it, but he was sure it was ok to drop... he was wrong, as he didn't realise that Tash's line (who was on the other side of the boat) was also tangled in the japanese girls, and he'd just cut the end off of both their lines letting drop to the seabed, and tied the lines together, so that they were now in a perpetual tug-of-war! Didn't hinder Tash though, as after a fresh set of hooks and weights, she then fought her way to victory over a barracuda! You can't eat them, but still a blooming cool catch! Her boyfriend Jamie wasn't to be outdone though, and immediately after caught a blue cod! I hoped to finish up with a winner too, but just got a decent sized brace of sea perch.
We headed back to land via a quick stop at a crayfish pot. We only pulled one up and it had ten crayfish in it, of which we were allowed (after measuring and making sure no eggs on them) to take back 6! These crayfish aren't like th UK or even American ones; they're huge. The size of a decent lobster minus the big claw.
We were given a little bag filled with the fruits of our fishing, which was about 10 fillets each, and invited back to Jerry's place later in the afternoon for some of his wine and he would barbie up our crayfish. I headed back to the hostel via the shop to make Jo a nice lunch of pan-fried fish, mediterranean tomatoes, pasta and broccoli. She got back from her dolphin spotting on a high, and we enjoyed a very un-traveller-on-a-budget lunch! Before heading to Jerry's we had some time, so we borrowed some tennis rackets and balls, and I set about teaching Jo how to play as she's been banging on that she wants to learn. We eventually got a few rallies going, but mostly just messed about, bt was good fun (plenty of legging it outside the courts to get the balls back, but no huge dogs to avoid like when we were kids in Challow!).
We wandered up to Jerry's, and Cam the bus driver and his girlfriend were also there as well as a few others besides Tash, Jamie, Jo and I. We were given plenty of good white wine, and Jerry barbied the crayfish, then cracked one open and put it on the table for us all to try. To my relief, Jo didn't like it, so mine was all to myself! We had another glass of wine, then wandered home in the dwindling daylight to relax by the woodburner and eat my crayfish.
Next morning we forewent breakfast and just got straight on the bus bound for Nelson, and then the Interislander onto Welly again. We stopped after only 45 mins for some brekkie, then again 10 mins up the road to see some seals in a little waterfall. We weren't expecting much, and Cam didn't talk it up much, but we were shocked; there were over a hundred at least playing around in the pool at the bottom of some falls right in front of us, and some curious little ones came right up to us! Very cute as there were a few little pups around already too.
We got back on the bus, dropped off at Nelson, and wandered onto the ferry, where Tash, Jamie, Kay, Jo and I sat chatting in the cafe the whole 3 hours. I then hunted down a minibus to take us to our hostels, said our goodbyes to Tash and Jamie, wandered to the shops, and finished the day by making a huge bowl of nachos with a can of Stagg chilli to go with it!
Next morning in Welly was miserable, and we got on an Intercity bus at 7.30am to take us to Auckland. There is very little to report; we sat and listened to music, read, dozed and played games for the next 10 1/2 hours, only stopping when the bus let us off! We checked in at YHA again, and had been put back in the first room we stayed in there, so we dumped our stuff, and stretched our legs around town for a bit, got some dinner, then back to the hostel - amazing how tiring it is doing nothing sometimes!
Next morning we had the day before our flight to Beijing in the evening. We sorted bits out on the internet, did washing, and went up the Skytower that overlooks the city and harbour as a final furore to NZ, and got a cab to the airport!
You can see that construction (or rather, demolition and refurbishment) is booming, and now that the scale of destruction earthquakes can have on Christchurch is apparent, a lot of people are leaving, which is sad, but we've been told that the Irish are picking up the slack! Due to the Irish economy being up the swanny, and the number of skilled trades needed to rebuild the city, NZ have been actively seeking Irish people to go over, and they're going over in droves. Not quite enough to balance the people leaving, but very good all the same.
Enough of that. We dropped off people, stopped at a cafe which is also a centre dedicated to Antarctic projects (as it's a last base to stop at before heading there for civilian and military groups) for our lunch stop for the last stop. We arrived in Kaikora around 3, and didn't do much really. Jo and I plus a saffer were the only ones in our hostel, which was an eco-friendly place seemingly staffed entirely by European stoners. We wandered into the town, wandered back, made dinner and sat chatting with people in the hostel for the rest of the night.
The next morning, Jo and I were to spend the longest away from each other in 5 months. She was going to watch dolphins on a boat, and I was going sea-fishing. The total time apart was 4 hours.
I don't know how exactly th dolphin watching was; you'll have to read Jos blog for that; but the sea-fishing was great. There was only 7 of us on the boat, and we stopped and saw a couple of dolphins playing around us, then a bit further out we saw a little blue penguin swimming in front of the boat! We got out to 80m depth, got some big juicy bait on and went for it. I was amazed; the second the reel was about 70m out, they were biting, and no sooner than you got to 80m, you had 2 on the line. Just a shame they were so bloody far down - the longest part was reeling them the whole way up! Albatross' were bloody everywhere too, and I accidentally caught one when it went for my bait as I was just putting it over the boat, so was a bit fruity having this bird with about 2.5m wingspan flapping away at me! Luckily the old dude (Jerry) whose boat it was sorted it and I got back to catching fish instead of birds. We carried on, and a little japanese girl who kept letting out hundreds of metres of reel got her line tangled with mine, but the biggest knot was around her own line, mine just unhooked from hers, so the old dude decided to cut out the tangled section, and retie it and let the other bit drop. I was holding the middle bit, and it felt like it had a bit of weight on it, but he was sure it was ok to drop... he was wrong, as he didn't realise that Tash's line (who was on the other side of the boat) was also tangled in the japanese girls, and he'd just cut the end off of both their lines letting drop to the seabed, and tied the lines together, so that they were now in a perpetual tug-of-war! Didn't hinder Tash though, as after a fresh set of hooks and weights, she then fought her way to victory over a barracuda! You can't eat them, but still a blooming cool catch! Her boyfriend Jamie wasn't to be outdone though, and immediately after caught a blue cod! I hoped to finish up with a winner too, but just got a decent sized brace of sea perch.
We headed back to land via a quick stop at a crayfish pot. We only pulled one up and it had ten crayfish in it, of which we were allowed (after measuring and making sure no eggs on them) to take back 6! These crayfish aren't like th UK or even American ones; they're huge. The size of a decent lobster minus the big claw.
We were given a little bag filled with the fruits of our fishing, which was about 10 fillets each, and invited back to Jerry's place later in the afternoon for some of his wine and he would barbie up our crayfish. I headed back to the hostel via the shop to make Jo a nice lunch of pan-fried fish, mediterranean tomatoes, pasta and broccoli. She got back from her dolphin spotting on a high, and we enjoyed a very un-traveller-on-a-budget lunch! Before heading to Jerry's we had some time, so we borrowed some tennis rackets and balls, and I set about teaching Jo how to play as she's been banging on that she wants to learn. We eventually got a few rallies going, but mostly just messed about, bt was good fun (plenty of legging it outside the courts to get the balls back, but no huge dogs to avoid like when we were kids in Challow!).
We wandered up to Jerry's, and Cam the bus driver and his girlfriend were also there as well as a few others besides Tash, Jamie, Jo and I. We were given plenty of good white wine, and Jerry barbied the crayfish, then cracked one open and put it on the table for us all to try. To my relief, Jo didn't like it, so mine was all to myself! We had another glass of wine, then wandered home in the dwindling daylight to relax by the woodburner and eat my crayfish.
Next morning we forewent breakfast and just got straight on the bus bound for Nelson, and then the Interislander onto Welly again. We stopped after only 45 mins for some brekkie, then again 10 mins up the road to see some seals in a little waterfall. We weren't expecting much, and Cam didn't talk it up much, but we were shocked; there were over a hundred at least playing around in the pool at the bottom of some falls right in front of us, and some curious little ones came right up to us! Very cute as there were a few little pups around already too.
We got back on the bus, dropped off at Nelson, and wandered onto the ferry, where Tash, Jamie, Kay, Jo and I sat chatting in the cafe the whole 3 hours. I then hunted down a minibus to take us to our hostels, said our goodbyes to Tash and Jamie, wandered to the shops, and finished the day by making a huge bowl of nachos with a can of Stagg chilli to go with it!
Next morning in Welly was miserable, and we got on an Intercity bus at 7.30am to take us to Auckland. There is very little to report; we sat and listened to music, read, dozed and played games for the next 10 1/2 hours, only stopping when the bus let us off! We checked in at YHA again, and had been put back in the first room we stayed in there, so we dumped our stuff, and stretched our legs around town for a bit, got some dinner, then back to the hostel - amazing how tiring it is doing nothing sometimes!
Next morning we had the day before our flight to Beijing in the evening. We sorted bits out on the internet, did washing, and went up the Skytower that overlooks the city and harbour as a final furore to NZ, and got a cab to the airport!
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