Trip North: Part 1

After my little sky diving experience I set off traveling north. If you remember, I had to be in Picton in four days, so I had time to stop at some cities and stay the night.

The day I left picton I got off to a late start, probably around 5 or 6. The problem with that was  between Queenstown and Christchurch there is nothing. At least on the east coast there isn’t, which the direction I was traveling up was.  Not much happened to me the rest of that day, I drove a bunch, tried to find a good radio station which isn’t possible in the middle of New Zealand, and drove my Mt. Cook, the tallest mountain in NZ.

Then I slept is the car. HORRRRRIBBBLLEEE idea. I didn’t so much as sleep and closed my eyes. I figured I’d try to put the back seat down and sleep with my feed going into the trunk. Nope. Seat didn’t go down. So I was left trying to find a comfortable position in a super small Nissan sedan.  Needless to say it wasn’t possible. I got up at 6 and started driving toward Christchurch.

I got into Christ church around 11, after taking an hour nap along the way, and started looking for a hostel to stay at. Usually the first one I go to has space, and if not the first then the second. That wasn’t the case in Christchurch. I was able to get a room at my FIFTH hostel I went to. This was mainly because of the earthquake.  

I’m not sure if you remember hearing about it in the news, but Christchurch had two major earthquakes in the past year. It was the second one that did a lot of damage. It’s very evident as soon as you drive into the city. You drive by countless empty lots where buildings used to be, or buildings fenced off that have yet to be demolished.

In fact the heart of the city is totally fenced off. The city center was the worst part hit of the city. The buildings were older, taller, and not earthquake proof. The city center was also where most of the restaurants, bars and active part of the city was.  It left the city feeling dead. There wasn’t much to do and tough to get around. I kinda felt like I was in a war zone.

I explored the area for a good two hours before going to the hostel.

After making myself some mac ‘n’ cheese for dinner I took my car and headed for the beach. I thought that I would just head toward where I thought the shore was and get there easily. It didn’t really work like that. I got really lost for 20-30 minutes before finally finding the shore.

I spent about two hours there before heading back to my hostel. I watched a movie and feel asleep.

The next day I decided to go out to the Banks Peninsula, toward Akaroa. I got really lost again, but eventually got there. It reminded me a lot of Frenchtown, New Jersey. It was small but had a lot of personality. The beautiful sunshine also helped I’m sure.

Cliffs collapsed because of the earthquake making the roads unusable and hard to get the Akaroa

Didn't mean to get soooo much ice cream...

Low tide

After that I drove a few hours North where I stayed in a hostel in Kaikoura for the night.