Christchurch was cold, overcast and drizzly when we arrived. I didn't mind at all though, as I had just come from Brisbane which is in drought and on water restrictions. I was glad to see rain!
One of the first things I noticed as we came into Christchurch was the houses - cute, smallish looking and they all had chimneys! I know that might sound ignorant, but I did think they looked quite, well, English really. In that weather though, it makes perfect sense.It was getting dark quickly as we drove into the town centre, so we headed straight for our accommodation at the Quest Apartments on Worcester Street. Our room was really lovely, right above a tram stop. And it was right in the middle of town, so it was easy to find our way around. We decided to go out for dinner - we stopped at a nearby restaurant called Sticky Fingers. I was particularly drawn to this one because it shares its name with my favourite Rolling Stones album! Silly reason I know, but it turned out to be a good choice!
The next day we spent our time exploring the town centre, checking out shops and cafes along the way. It was really, really cold and wet, so we didn't explore too far. There were some things that I wanted to see, such as the gardens and the river, but it was just too cold to go exploring - and I'm not used to the cold! Waaaaaahhhhhhh.....
The buildings here were really beautiful, quite old-fashioned looking. This just added to the overall 'English' feeling of Christchurch. But despite this, it was unmistakably kiwi - there were All Blacks flags all over town, advertising the upcoming game against the Springboks. Rugby is like a religion in New Zealand!
We decided to take a trip outside of town the next day, to the hot pools of
Hanmer Springs. I've been to thermal pools before in New Zealand, but that was in the summer time. It makes more sense to go in winter, although you freeze your arse off before you even make it to the water. And it is so painful when you get in because you are so freaking cold but the water is so bloody hot! We must have looked hilarious to the other tourists as we danced about and carried on like pork-chops. Overall, an experience not to be missed! And Hanmer Springs is a lovely little place. Not far from the hot pools was a little shop that sold awesome fudge and cute little toys. We indulged our sweet tooth and shared some sickly sweet Mars bar chocolate fudge. Mmmmm.....One thing that I loved about Christchurch was the cheap drinks at pubs. $3 dollar beers - choice! We drank Tui beer - I'm guessing it's their equivalent to VB or XXXX in Australia. But I thought it tasted a lot better - so that's pretty much what I drank while I was there. Christchurch has got a lot of pubs to go drinking in and several decent live music venues. We didn't get to see any big name acts while we were there, but I did notice that the Shins were coming to town a few weeks after we left. Despite that, we set out to find a club with some live music. So we made a stop off at the Jetset Lounge and watched a Battle of the Bands competition, hoping to see the next Datsuns. Unfortunately, that was not the case. The first band was quite funny, although I'm not sure they were intending on being so. They introduced each song - "this song is about beer...", "this song is about homosexuals", "this song is about f---ing politicians!" and so on. Needless to say, we didn't stick around for the other bands...
Our stop-off in Christchurch was over very quickly, but it was fun to check it out. It's a beautiful city with an interesting night life. I would have liked to check out more, but it was very cold and it was pretty hard to explore the place when it was zero degrees outside. I know - I'm a wuss! Anyways, stay tuned for more posts about the amazing drive through Arthur's Pass to the West Coast.
