Christchurch

We had to get up pretty early in the morning to visit one last sight before leaving Dunedin. The steepest road of the world – Baldwin street . Our bus driver made us hike up that steep hill by promising that on top of it would be a nice cafeteria offering hot chocolate. Of course when we reached the peak, there was nothing but some old houses and an odd looking camper van.

On the way to Christchurch we stopped for a walk at the Moeraki boulders. There are huge boulders lying along a stretch of Koekohe Beach, some of these boulders are broken and you can sit in them like in a chair, or jump from one to another. Very stupid idea when the mist has made them slippery and you try to jump from one boulder to the other – like I did…

The drive from Canterbury Plains to Christchurch also meant the last time I would travel with a most of the group that had stayed on the bus with me for almost three weeks. Of course we celebrated that one last evening at the pub in Christchurch, had a few dinks and danced till early in the morning.

21st of Oktober,
A sunny and warm day is best spent outside in the nature, so I took a bus to the Christchurch Gondola to get a better view of the area. Up at the restaurant I met a German girl and we decided to hike down the mountain together to get some nice views of the Canterbury Plains and take a bus back from Lyttelton Harbour rather then just taking the cable way down again.

22nd of October: Botanical Gardens and Art center
A nice way to explore the inner city is the tram, which follows a 2.5 kilometer loop around central Christchurch. It’s a nice way to hop on and off at the major sights like the Botanical Gardends – with its rather disturbing little pond. The pond has statue of a blindfolded woman in the water like she is looking for something. Imagine a foggy day in fall when you walk around the park and it’s about to get dark!