more english than england

February 17, 2010

We spent the last 2 days/nights in Christchurch. Not v warm here! Tina wears her toque and Erin her scarf and 2 coats. Haha. About 10 C in morning, but air is moist and damp. The city is known as being “more English than England”. Sharing a hostel room is Janine from Germany, 2 young guys from Holland, and 2 others we didn’t meet.

Our mission was to develop some sort of a plan for our 6 weeks in NZ. At the visitor’s centre, a man informed us that he thought we were basically crazy to hitchhike-just us two girls. So, we then began researching bus passes, which turned out to be quite a lengthy process! We spent lots of time at the public library trying to figure out the best deal. For many people’s delight, we are sure, we now have a bus pass which we can use for the entire length of our stay in NZ. We get to get on and off when we want and the bus goes all around the north and south islands. We are set! Not really sure if we’ll get to work while here.

When we were not at the library researching bus companies and places to stay, we explored the city a little. We walked through the city centre, which is filled with lots of little shops and bars. There are Irish pubs everywhere! The first day we had our lunch on a little bench in the city centre. We had a can of tuna and some rice crackers. Oh, and a large coffee from Starbucks that we split. Today for lunch we split a $6 plate of curry, naan, and rice – much to the chagrin of the restauranteur. Haha. We are going to be experts on how to make travelling cheap and on developing clever ways to save some money!

We also walked around the botanical gardens. They were quite large and very nice. Erin liked the rose garden J . Did a quick grocery run and finally had salad with dinner! Also bought Nestle ‘coffee and milk’ in a tube like toothpaste. Just add boiling water! It’s uber gross. Not gonna get caffeine fix there...

So far, prices are slightly cheaper than home but not by much. Noticeable differences from Canada:

I. Everyone here smokes. Even pretty old ladies walking to work in the morning in skirts and nice shoes. Gross.

2. Car parks = parking lots; takeaways = take out food – these are prob same as in UK

3. i = e; that is, we say pen, they say pin; we say tent, they say tint – erin was a bit confused when the customs agent at the airport in Christchurch asked her if she had a tint. haha

Now en route to Kaikoura,

erin