The third leg of our trip was here as we traded in Wallabies for Kiwis. We arrived in Christchurch following a short flight from Sydney feeling a little tired, having not made it to bed the previous night. It was immediately obvious that this was a place still suffering from the devastation of the 6.3 magnitude earthquake that had struck just 5 weeks prior to our arrival. The earthquake claimed the lives of 181 people, forced over 10,000 homes to be demolished that were deemed unsafe to inhabit, as well as the destruction of most of the city centre buildings. Our shuttle to the hostel took us around the edge of the city centre as all the streets through the CBD were shut due to the locals continuing with the recovery operation. We arrived at the Old Guesthouse, checked in and before we could decide what to do for the remainder of the day, our heads hit the pillow and we were out for the night, waking only briefly at dinner time so as to refuel for our second bout of sleep.
The following day, we were set to begin our Kiwi Experience bus tour and after a much needed lie in, we joined fellow backpackers on a small minibus driven by `Speed`. Unsure whether this nickname was due to his explosive driving exploits or questionable drug use, we climbed aboard anyway and headed to the Antarctic Centre to meet up with the rest of our prospective travellers. Here, we drew up a brief plan of our intended stop offs and dates, which gave Harwil the opportunity to chill with his Antarctic buddies, namely a large penguin. We joined a much larger Kiwi bus here at 4pm to head up to our first stop of Kaikoura. We arrived at our hostel, The Lazy Shag and headed into town where we had seen signs for a pub quiz and the offer of a free beer from one of the patrons. Our team of 8 randomly assembled minds that included an English duo of Will and Ben and an Irish couple, Austin and Eimear, all of whom would become good friends of ours during our tour of New Zealand. With these 8 great minds and aided by a local newspaper to help us out with the `in the news` round we blew away our local Kaikouran opposition to win the quiz hosted by the `local` cockney quizmaster and won two much needed jugs of beer. This added to the jug we had already won thanks to Eimear`s uncanny resemblance to Jennifer Love-Hewitt in the lookalikes round and thus providing us with an enjoyable and cheap evening.
The following day it was time for Ant and Dave's first activity of New Zealand. Deterred by the $150 trip offered by Kiwi Experience to sit in a boat to watch Whales, we decided we would try and catch them on the highly recommended fishing trip. Despite the torrential rain and rough seas, Dave's craving for fishing could not be abated and Ant and Dave ventured out onto the high seas accompanied by two seasoned fishermen who would act as our tour guides, captains and fishmongers for the day. Kaikoura`s peninsula drops steeply into the sea providing swelling currents that give the area with an abundance of marine life. As a result, our trip came with a money back guarantee if we failed to catch any fish, something we were thrilled to have been given our limited experience in fishing beyond our highly attuned crabbing skills. Their confidence was justified as soon after leaving port a single pot had provided us with several Crayfish. We then headed out further into sea with our surprisingly nifty boat coping admirably well with the 15ft swells being thrown at it. Following a 30 minute boat ride in a scene that would not have been out of place in the film `A Perfect Storm`, we dropped anchor and lines and began fishing. No more that 5 minutes later Ant had his first catch, a rather ugly looking Perch. Over the next half hour or so, Ant and Dave caught over a dozen perch, 1 blue cod and after a ferocious battle, Ant even managed to catch a shark! Despite the extraordinary size of our catch, Ant and Dave were starting to feel the effects of the terrible conditions and were starting to turn various shaded of yellow as we trundled back to land. After a much slower return journey, we eventually had our feet back on firm ground and headed back to the hostel to enjoy a gourmet Perch lunch and enjoy the fish that just a couple of hours earlier was swimming happily in the Pacific Ocean. That evening Ant decided to stay in, whilst Dave and James headed out to the bright lights of Kaikoura. To his amazement Dave's dream became reality as amid the mass of locals in the bar, there was a flock of young Swedish women, all of whom studied Geography. Dave was in his element as he realised his efforts over three years of studying the subject in Leicester were finally bearing fruit.
The next day we hopped on the Kiwi Bus to Nelson, the gateway to the Abel Tasman National Park. Soon after boarding, we were introduced to our bus driver Cam, or as he preferred to be known, Zippy. This was the first of 2 introductions as we were also greeted with the `morning song`, a song Zippy randomly selected on his iPod that would be played each day to help us adjust to life on a bus with a hangover. This song was Twin Galaxies by Shapeshifter, a song we would learn to love over the next few weeks. As soon as we arrived however, our minds were focused on trying to leave. Due to Nelson being a slight bottle neck for Kiwi passengers looking to start their South Island tour, the next guaranteed bus we could get on would be April 13th, meaning we would have to stay there for 9 nights and in turn prevent us from staying any extra nights elsewhere in New Zealand. Our only option was to go on the waiting list for the following day and hope people would forget to set their alarms to allow space for us on the bus. After sorting out the bus as far as we could, we took advantage of the good weather and went for a short walk up a perilously steep slope to a hilltop that offered spectacular views over Nelson and marked the central point of New Zealand.
The following morning we packed our bags in the hope we would get lucky and get a space on the bus. Our case was helped immediately as one of our roommates who was due on the bus that morning had one to many drinks and was immobilised. The three of us struggled to contain our joy as she broke the news of her unfortunate situation. Thankfully a number of other passengers suffered the same plight and as such, we were able to squeeze onto the big green Kiwi bus and start our tour of the spectacular West coast of New Zealand's south island.
Ant, Dave and James