Christchurch, New Zealand

Our first stop on our tour of New Zealand was Christchurch. We mostly are here by accident. Although I mostly successfully planned our trip from a computer in Toronto, but we arranged to fly into Christchurch rather than our intended destination, Queenstown. However, it actually worked out spectacularly in the end.

As I'm sure you all know, the downtown (or central business district) of Christchurch was pretty severely decimated by an earthquake in 2011. The city is still trying to recover. Many people have left the city (especially jaz and my cohort) instead of participating in the renewal. We only had one day walking around the city and were amazed at how few people there were. It felt like you were in as university town when school was out for summer. If you want to picture Christchurch, you wouldn't be too far off if you imagined Kingston in Ontario. In defence of Christchurch, my claim should be mitigated by the fact that a) we were coming from Asia (where there are people everywhere!) and b) it was pouring rain and c) it was Sunday and we were in the business district. We had a bit of reverse shock in terms of the traffic. In Asia, there are almost no lights you just have to walk across and hope the wall of traffic coming at you parts to let you through. Here, you need definitely need to follow the crossing signs, despite the nearly empty streets. 

Our time in Christchurch was really made special by our host, Daniel. He may be one of the nicest people I have ever came across. He picked us up from the airport, chauffeured us around the city, and taught us an excellent card game. 

In our poverty (and the card scarceness in Asia), jasmine made us our own playing cards (she had lost our previous set in Koh Rong). Daniel took pity on us, and gave us our own real set! I think he was a little overwhelmed by how happy we were.

On out first night as a group we played cards, tried New Zealand ginger beer (which is excellent), and made nachos together.

We weren't too touristy in CC, but managed to buy all our camping equipment and do some laundry.

Wandering the city in the rain! Came across this bizarre furniture set.

Montreal St

Our main takeaways about New Zealand so far is that people don't really wear shoes here (like multiple people are barefoot in the supermarket), and they are incredibly kind. Toronto comes across as a terribly mean place in comparison. Every single New Zealander we have interacted with has gone out of their way to help us (bus drivers tell us secret routes to save money, another one made sure we knew what address we are going to, or flight attendants just giving us the best customer service.. Ever).

The last thing you need to know about CC is this cat, Snuggles

She was so cute! I almost had to steal her. I don't mean to be rude to the street cats of Asia, but they are mean-looking and mangey. Can't compete with this chubby housecat.

The affection was mutual. She didn't want us to leave.

I think this picture speaks for itself.