29th – 30th September 2012

Still buzzing from my bungy jump and my fantastic day at Milford Sound during my time in Queenstown, it was time to bade farewell to the adventure capital of New Zealand and go on the longest journey of the Kiwi Experience to the earthquake struck beautiful city of Christchurch. It was gonna take 8 long hours. So do you know what’s needed the night before of this journey to make sure I didn’t starve?

Fergburger!

Famed throughout the world as the best burger that’s absolutely massive and guaranteed scrumminess, there was absolutely 100% possibility that I would be sat in their restaurant and scoffing a fergburger in my mouth. And I did. Check out the pics.

Calling it a night early seeing as both Henning and I had to get up early…(what is it about Kiwi Experience trying to make us get up before dawn to get the bus!)..we succeeded. Congratulating ourselves as trying to get up early last time nearly made us miss the bus aka Welly, we climbed on the bus and set off to head out of Queenstown. Not before long, I had to lie down on the seats as I was totally puckerooed (slang for totally tired as in buggered) and watch the world whizz by as we went through the Kawarau Gorge and further on over the Lindis Pads into Mackenzie County, which is known for a notorious sheep hustler, James Mackenzie. I feel I have to explain to you about what hustling means as someone thought it meant taking a relationship with a sheep to a whole new level. Slapping my forehead, I silently apologised to James who now has a false reputation as a sheep shagger. Basically, he liked to steal sheep and sell them on. What he did in between is totally his business…

After a quick stop in Twizel to pick up people and drop off people heading to Mount Cook, New Zealand’s highest mountain, we stopped off in Tekapo for lunch where a stunning lake laid before us. The weather wasn’t that great but I rather felt that this added to the atmosphere of the lake creating a stormy outlook. We even visited the Church of the Good Shepherd, a beautiful small building situated on the side of the lake. Check out the pics.

From there, we still had a long way to go. But at least it was a straight run to Christchurch. So I ended up having a good kip on the bus and thought about Christchurch a lot.

A lot of people has told me to give Christchurch a miss and hop on the next bus to Kaikoura, that awaits the Queenstown bus before setting off. I felt that would be doing the famed city injustice and I was determined to stay. I had to anyway, I booked 2 nights to stay here when I was in Queenstown. This is the only place where Kiwi Experience does not book accommodation for you. Perhaps unfair, but since the quake, many of the hostels were destroyed and the ones left standing are mostly filled with construction workers that are rebuilding the rest of the city.

Settled by Anglians from England, Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island and the second largest in New Zealand. It brought tourists and visitors alike to this city for its stunning architecture and its gorgeous beauty. However, this was all to change when in February 2011, the city suffered a 6.3 magnitude earthquake destroyed many buildings and damaging beautiful old Neo-gothic buildings including the iconic Christchurch Cathedral. The city centre is currently closed off and we were informed that there were still loads to do in the surrounding areas.

Arriving at our accommodation for the night, both Henning and I chilled out and took a walk around the city. The damage was there to behold. All will be explained tomorrow.

Poor Christchurch.

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