Day 1-3 in New Zealand

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The flights from Melbourne to Sydney and Sydney to Christchurch weren’t bad at all. You had to pay for anything you wished to eat or drink, sadly, so I respectfully declined to pay 5 dollars for a glass of coke that used to be given for free. Luckily, I brought my own food. On the second flight, the attendant passed by me after I had brought out my Japanese dish to tell me how good my food smelled. Apparently he could smell it all the way where he was sitting. That’s right. My dinner was way better than the crap they overcharged people for on the plane. When I got into Christchurch I was met by my shuttle around 12:30 am and was taken to the hostel I was so excited about. Well, we got there and it was closed! Evidently, reception closed at 8pm, even though when I made the booking I said I’d be there after midnight. I was stuck with a driver who didn’t speak much English in a town that honestly had me worried. It didn’t look very inviting at night. He was nice enough to take me to a 24-hour hostel closer to the city where I managed to get a room. It was a little sketchy, though. There was a couple behind me in line that couldn’t wait to get a room. They didn’t have any bags, and it appeared as though they had other things on their mind than sleeping at this hour. After the receptionist handed me my key and pointed me in the direction of my room, I leaned over the counter and with a worried look and whispered, “Are they going to be in my room?” He told me not to worry about them, so I snuck away to my room.
When I walked in all the lights were off and I could barely see my bunk. The guy stuck me in a room with crap everywhere and all but one bed taken. These people had been there a while. As I was getting into bed, the last person came in, obviously drunk, and crawled into bed. I was tossing and turning quite a bit, being all alone in a hostel I wasn't prepared for. About 20-30 minutes into the night, I started to hear gurgling noises from the girl’s bed who had stumbled in after me. Then I heard really big gurgling noises….she threw up quite a bit in her bed. I just thought to myself, are you serious? She literally fell out of bed and ran out the door to the bathroom in the other building. She left the door wide open and the room became freezing. As the wind blew in, I began to smell whatever drinks to had consumed hours earlier. Not pleasant, at all. When she came back in 20 minutes later, she crawled into the bunk above her with a friend, I guess, leaving her vomit-soaked sheets in the bed. A hotel sounded so good at the moment. However, I simply rolled over and faced away from the fumes and eventually got 3 hours of sleep.
I woke up the next morning and dragged my bag a few blocks down to Cathedral Square where I was to meet my shuttle to get me the hell out of Christchurch. I hopped in with another Kiwi woman (what they call New Zealanders here) and headed east to Akaroa. The drive was breath-taking. I couldn’t help but smile the whole way there because I had never seen anything like it. Akaroa is situated inside the crater of an extinct volcano, which erupted quite some time ago. The whole area east of Christchurch was formed from two eruptions. So, that gives you an idea of what we were driving through. Everything was a luscious green, scattered with sheep and cattle. We never drove in a straight line for more than 3 minutes. We were constantly doing 90-degree turns up and down hills. When we finally arrived in the town, it was freezing at 10:30 in the morning. My hostel was awesome, I’d just like to add. It was called Chez La Mer and was named so in reference to this town being the oldest French colony in NZ. I was in a very nice bunk room with one other guy from Germany. I headed out with my sweatshirt and fleece to do some hiking around the crater. I fond a trail that headed back in the woods and up the hill, and by the end of it I had stripped down to my t-shirt and rolled up my pants. This town, though hidden, is quite amazing. The smell of the salt-water was heavenly and the color too beautiful to describe.
I headed back to the hostel to skype my parents and make sure they knew I was alive. Afterward, the german asked me if I wanted to join in frying somefish for dinner. I happily accepted, and headed outside to hang out with some fellow hostel guests. As it turned out, I was the only real guest besides the german. A guy from the UK was working for the couple whole owned the hostel (who are from NY) and lived there for free. I met a girl from Texas a few years older than me who had just graduated and decided to live in NZ for 7 months. She had gotten there a week earlier. She works at the hostel 2 hours a day cleaning, and gets to live there for free. How awesome is that? I met two other people from Germany and one from France who are doing work there as well. We decided to order in fish and chips instead of attempting to make it. We sat around the living room and hung out the rest of the evening. We drank lots of free hot tea and shared stories. Oh, we also made apple crumble, which didn’t turn out so great. But by adding lots of vanilla ice cream we made it taste pretty good.
The next morning I headed out to get breakfast, enjoy the view some more, and hopped on the shuttle to Christchurch. I stored my bag in a locker and hung around the square for 4 hours before my next bus arrived. Now, I am on that bus heading to Kaikoura, which is 180 km north of Christchurch to hang out for 2 nights. As we drive through the country I can’t help but catch myself with my jaw down as I look outside. I’m seriously considering moving here one day. To work here is an environmental scientist’s/ecologist’s dream. I wish you all could come here to see this place.

Cheers.

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