So the first section of our trip is over. We flew to New Zealand on the 25th March 2015 after a weekend with new family and friends up at Bunya mountains. Another perfectly timed eagle and feeding wild wallabies sent us on our way beautifully. We will miss our hosts Joel and Angel Kate but it is high time they had some respite and we had to strike out on our own. Living in a van together, hoping neither of us dies... for seven weeks... that is 49 days....
New Zealand is different. If Australian attitudes seem relaxed and the red tape is about a decade behind the UK then New Zealand is at least 50 years. They even still pump your petrol for you... This is where Australians come when Australia gets to highly strung. The aussie bloke that took us on a walk to meet a local 400 lb Sea lion said he liked it here because "it was waaaaay more relaxed" just after letting us literally jump on his boat as it was leaving the jetty. Health and safety. If Australia is friendly then New Zealand is as Yorkshire is compared to London. We broke down and the garage owner had us sat with a cup of tea and flicked a two dollar coin into the coffee machine "just in case" we wanted to use it.
We flew in to Queenstown, but an odd twist in our campervan arrangements meant that we went directly to Christchurch with an 8 hour coach journey separating the two. This forced us to look at two starkly different sides of NZ with a brief look at the famous Mt Cook and NASA's balloon in between. Queenstown felt rich. Constantly busy, even the fudge shop was open til 10 at night. The famous Fergburger with queues out the door and every second shop was selling the 'experience of a life time'. The place was buzzing and It made you want to be there. Within five minutes of walking to Lake Wakatipu we were convinced we could live here. Groups of young travellers were herded along on bar crawls and local pubs played live music with mass barbecues. It's odd to look up and see Parachutes falling into the city. The best possible entrance to New Zealand beside Peter Jackson himself welcoming us into his home. Bordering the most stunning clear water glacier lake which neither of us could actually believe and surrounded by mountains. Big mountains. It had an easiness that can only come with money to do the things you enjoy. As many kiwis as tourists seem to use it as a base for doing the things you love. Groups of early risers in muddy gear sat in the cafés getting coffee from the Cookie Monster. We hit the giant (even scarier the second time round) canyon swing and were soon waking up at 6:30 tip toeing around sleeping backpackers to make our coach to Christchurch. Remember the no plastic bag rule. The thing we notice immediately is the difference between the conveyor belt that seems to have become the east coast of Australia and the people that attracts and the type of people we meet here. It's refreshing to meet people who come here specifically for what New Zealand has to offer. Walks, natural beauty and ridiculous wildlife. Having a casual chat while using the computer resulted in tips for dried foods and the balance between what you can carry and what you need to stay alive. "Someone died just last week up mount cook because they were not prepared." It reminded us of the people on our noosa trip hiking up in flip flops and a t shirt. That shit will get you killed. We immediately recognised a feeling of being the casuals in amongst the serious Trekkers. We noticed climbing boots tied onto ruck sacks that were filthy from three week bush walks. "Don't you guys even have sleeping bags?"
Cue Christchurch. The bus journey was brilliant, Lake Takapo, Mount Cook and a NASA balloon which shut down a whole town and made us an hour late. We arrive and the driver points to the museum in response to us asking where we are. "That's the museum." Should apparently be all we needed to find our hostel.... The bus driver was lovely, so helpful- as has every single person we have met- friendliest place we've been so far. Only a 20 minute walk he said, which was perfect after a 9 hour journey. Eager we set off, shocked to see so much destruction in the CBD still from the earthquake, but beautifully incorporated into the city now with graffiti art on half demolished walls. Keen to soak in our second city in NZ we walked on, following the bus drivers instructions... One hour and 15 minutes later we arrive at our hostel, Jonathan has both rucksacks and our day bag by now, and Lisa can only just carry the camera. We made it. Safe and in one piece which is a success apparently as during our mission we wandered through Linwood, which we later found out has been renamed by neighbouring areas as 'Linhood' (couches and mattresses scattering the streets, a random man who had women's clothes and shoes nailed to his front gate and laughed when he saw the effect it had along with many more drinking on the front porch). With our research we found out that this was one of the most deprived areas of Christchurch even before the earthquake, and many didn't have house insurance which has left the people here devastated. We remembered walking past TVs in windows still playing but with huge cracks down them making weird alien forms out of the usual characters on the screens. But we made it, and thank god the walk was long enough to take us back out of the hood and into Haka.
Haka Lodge was only Lisa's third experience of a hostel, and thank goodness it was a beaut! Clean friendly, cosy and warm!! It kept giving the next day too when we managed to retrieve some essentials from the free food cupboard. We rifled through and stole salt, soy sauce, noodles and even Vegemite! If honesty is key with this then we were not excited to return to Christchurch as the day before had been eye opening bordering on the scary. The horrible long walk only added to that impression. However once we had our van ready and stocked we were in a completely different frame of mind. A city in a first world country whose aid has long since stopped is almost too much to comprehend. Huge swathes of genuine destruction which neither have ever seen before rip right across the very centre. A shopping mall thrown up out of shipping containers to try and keep businesses functioning. It was decorated with beautiful graffiti but it was almost sad like seeing a child close it's eyes to hide itself while standing in plain sight. It would have been impossible. However the city clearly used to be beautiful and it seems that interesting people abound in these difficult situations as art and the modern cultures visually fight to put back a bit of what was lost. This could not be any more different from the fantasy of a place we landed in.
Picking up the camper van was to us a sign that we are out on our own. Able to explore at will. It's weird the mental switch that comes with the camper too. From Fergburgers and canyon swings in Queenstown to rice and beans and porridge. We are freedoms campers, and we are sure as hell not going to spend six dollars for a camp site! Armed with our new cheap mentality we headed for our free overnight stay. Which we discovered the next morning was right next to a running river. It was pretty perfect; porridge, a cup of tea and the sun bouncing off mountains making the water bright blue and perfectly clear. What started off as a joke quite rapidly descended into stripping down to pants grabbing the soap and daring each other to jump in. Lisa goes first driven by a desire to get clean and realising it's so cold that it hurts doesn't stop us getting in and thrashing about; only looking up to see a man casually (not looking over) starting a pump to run water out of the stream. We froze. He didn't look up, and walked away. Kia Ora.
New Zealand is different. If Australian attitudes seem relaxed and the red tape is about a decade behind the UK then New Zealand is at least 50 years. They even still pump your petrol for you... This is where Australians come when Australia gets to highly strung. The aussie bloke that took us on a walk to meet a local 400 lb Sea lion said he liked it here because "it was waaaaay more relaxed" just after letting us literally jump on his boat as it was leaving the jetty. Health and safety. If Australia is friendly then New Zealand is as Yorkshire is compared to London. We broke down and the garage owner had us sat with a cup of tea and flicked a two dollar coin into the coffee machine "just in case" we wanted to use it.
We flew in to Queenstown, but an odd twist in our campervan arrangements meant that we went directly to Christchurch with an 8 hour coach journey separating the two. This forced us to look at two starkly different sides of NZ with a brief look at the famous Mt Cook and NASA's balloon in between. Queenstown felt rich. Constantly busy, even the fudge shop was open til 10 at night. The famous Fergburger with queues out the door and every second shop was selling the 'experience of a life time'. The place was buzzing and It made you want to be there. Within five minutes of walking to Lake Wakatipu we were convinced we could live here. Groups of young travellers were herded along on bar crawls and local pubs played live music with mass barbecues. It's odd to look up and see Parachutes falling into the city. The best possible entrance to New Zealand beside Peter Jackson himself welcoming us into his home. Bordering the most stunning clear water glacier lake which neither of us could actually believe and surrounded by mountains. Big mountains. It had an easiness that can only come with money to do the things you enjoy. As many kiwis as tourists seem to use it as a base for doing the things you love. Groups of early risers in muddy gear sat in the cafés getting coffee from the Cookie Monster. We hit the giant (even scarier the second time round) canyon swing and were soon waking up at 6:30 tip toeing around sleeping backpackers to make our coach to Christchurch. Remember the no plastic bag rule. The thing we notice immediately is the difference between the conveyor belt that seems to have become the east coast of Australia and the people that attracts and the type of people we meet here. It's refreshing to meet people who come here specifically for what New Zealand has to offer. Walks, natural beauty and ridiculous wildlife. Having a casual chat while using the computer resulted in tips for dried foods and the balance between what you can carry and what you need to stay alive. "Someone died just last week up mount cook because they were not prepared." It reminded us of the people on our noosa trip hiking up in flip flops and a t shirt. That shit will get you killed. We immediately recognised a feeling of being the casuals in amongst the serious Trekkers. We noticed climbing boots tied onto ruck sacks that were filthy from three week bush walks. "Don't you guys even have sleeping bags?"
Cue Christchurch. The bus journey was brilliant, Lake Takapo, Mount Cook and a NASA balloon which shut down a whole town and made us an hour late. We arrive and the driver points to the museum in response to us asking where we are. "That's the museum." Should apparently be all we needed to find our hostel.... The bus driver was lovely, so helpful- as has every single person we have met- friendliest place we've been so far. Only a 20 minute walk he said, which was perfect after a 9 hour journey. Eager we set off, shocked to see so much destruction in the CBD still from the earthquake, but beautifully incorporated into the city now with graffiti art on half demolished walls. Keen to soak in our second city in NZ we walked on, following the bus drivers instructions... One hour and 15 minutes later we arrive at our hostel, Jonathan has both rucksacks and our day bag by now, and Lisa can only just carry the camera. We made it. Safe and in one piece which is a success apparently as during our mission we wandered through Linwood, which we later found out has been renamed by neighbouring areas as 'Linhood' (couches and mattresses scattering the streets, a random man who had women's clothes and shoes nailed to his front gate and laughed when he saw the effect it had along with many more drinking on the front porch). With our research we found out that this was one of the most deprived areas of Christchurch even before the earthquake, and many didn't have house insurance which has left the people here devastated. We remembered walking past TVs in windows still playing but with huge cracks down them making weird alien forms out of the usual characters on the screens. But we made it, and thank god the walk was long enough to take us back out of the hood and into Haka.
Haka Lodge was only Lisa's third experience of a hostel, and thank goodness it was a beaut! Clean friendly, cosy and warm!! It kept giving the next day too when we managed to retrieve some essentials from the free food cupboard. We rifled through and stole salt, soy sauce, noodles and even Vegemite! If honesty is key with this then we were not excited to return to Christchurch as the day before had been eye opening bordering on the scary. The horrible long walk only added to that impression. However once we had our van ready and stocked we were in a completely different frame of mind. A city in a first world country whose aid has long since stopped is almost too much to comprehend. Huge swathes of genuine destruction which neither have ever seen before rip right across the very centre. A shopping mall thrown up out of shipping containers to try and keep businesses functioning. It was decorated with beautiful graffiti but it was almost sad like seeing a child close it's eyes to hide itself while standing in plain sight. It would have been impossible. However the city clearly used to be beautiful and it seems that interesting people abound in these difficult situations as art and the modern cultures visually fight to put back a bit of what was lost. This could not be any more different from the fantasy of a place we landed in.
Picking up the camper van was to us a sign that we are out on our own. Able to explore at will. It's weird the mental switch that comes with the camper too. From Fergburgers and canyon swings in Queenstown to rice and beans and porridge. We are freedoms campers, and we are sure as hell not going to spend six dollars for a camp site! Armed with our new cheap mentality we headed for our free overnight stay. Which we discovered the next morning was right next to a running river. It was pretty perfect; porridge, a cup of tea and the sun bouncing off mountains making the water bright blue and perfectly clear. What started off as a joke quite rapidly descended into stripping down to pants grabbing the soap and daring each other to jump in. Lisa goes first driven by a desire to get clean and realising it's so cold that it hurts doesn't stop us getting in and thrashing about; only looking up to see a man casually (not looking over) starting a pump to run water out of the stream. We froze. He didn't look up, and walked away. Kia Ora.