Christchurch

On the edge of Christchurch stands Mount Victoria, which has some mountain biking trails that we thought would be fun to try out and so we drove up the mountain via Lyttelton. When we got there, we got a map of the tracks and studied it for a while, before deciding that it all looked far too energetic (steep) and really we should just enjoy the views from the top of the mountain! It was very impressive as we drove down along the scenic route, with the blue sea, the mountain and the city to see.

Back down in the city we went for a walking tour, following the directions in my Lonely Planet. At the city centre there is a fine cathedral and square, which always has a few street performers or buskers to entertain everyone. Finally we found a city with a clear centre, an unusual thing for New Zealand. Christchurch is a very English city though, so perhaps that is why. It is full of older buildings, trams and even has punting available! We spent some time in the Museum there also, which has sections on the Moas, an extinct New Zealand bird, some breeds of which were over 2 metres tall, the Scott base, and also a section on early types of transport, including a penny farthing (safely attached to a wall) which you can try out.

We found a better place to mountain bike too – Bottle Park is to the north of the city and is quite flat, but has good mountain biking tracks none the less. While we were in Christchurch we went out there with our bikes several times, and also ran there a couple of times. I did my first ever Orienteering Event there too. Sean has done it plenty of times at home so did a different course to me. When it was my turn to go, I was all set up with my map and a few tips from Sean as to how to navigate. You had a card that you had to punch at several different markers, reaching each in the correct order, the fastest time around the course winning. Despite having some difficulty trying to identify hills that really were just bumps I came 3rd in my division, and Sean came 4th in his. Not too bad for my first attempt I reckon!

We met up with another Irish paddler just in time for St. Patrick’s Day. Alan played polo in UL on Friday nights back when we were in college and has been living here for about 7 years now. We spent the rest of our time in Christchurch staying at his house. It turned out to be quite a hectic visit as we had to celebrate Paddy’s Day and my birthday and Alan was about to move up to Wellington with his job, so was busy with leaving parties too. We managed to cook ourselves a roast dinner for Easter Sunday though after playing on the slides and wave pools in the QEII Centre for the afternoon! After staying with him for about a week, we discovered that his little sister was the year behind me in Alex too.

Sean and I met up with an ex DCU paddler, Hannah, and her boyfriend Tim one day also. They have been working on a farm near Ashburton since getting here and were amazed at the time we’ve spent traveling. Tim studied agriculture, and they are crying out for farm workers here to the extent of advertising how good a life it is on the TV, so he had his job organised before leaving home. It was good to catch up with them though and they were grateful for the tips on where to go!

Eventually we decided that it was just starting to get too cold on the South Island and it was time to go north for winter, so we left the fun in Christchurch, with Alan coming behind us ready to move to Wellington.