New Plymouth and Christchurch

Hello all from Queenstown!

The last couple of days were spent in New Plymouth. On Wednesday night, we had dinner at Rob’s Dad’s best friend’s house. Bruce and his wife Lyn have built a beautiful new house on a paddock. They have a huge property all to themselves with a fab view of Mt Taranaki. They were lovely and we enjoyed a delicious dinner and dessert.

Yesterday, Rob and I took Agnes out for breakfast at the local shopping centre. I can see why Agnes loves Eastland so much when she visits Melbourne - New Plymouth’s is about 1/4 the size of Forest Hill Chase!!

In the afternoon, Rob and I went for a walk for a couple of hours along the beachside track. It was sunny and beautiful again - a perfect day for it! We enjoyed a Tip Top ice cream as a reward then headed home. We had dinner at Agnes’ and then Rob’s uncle Chris and cousin Caitlin came over to visit. We watched a fair bit of the commonwealth games together and watched the Aussie girls cyclists win gold against NZ.

We had a great time in New Plymouth. The town is fairly small and quiet, but it’s refreshing after what Melbourne has become in recent years. There were no apartments going up left right and centre, everyone still uses milk bars (called dairies here) and everyone passing in the street smiles and says hello. Agnes will be over to Melbourne in November so we will see her again then.

This morning we got up at 4.40am and drove to the airport. Turns out the terminal is so small it only opens 45 minutes before the first flight, so we had to wait 20 minutes before being let in. We flew on a small plane to Christchurch where we arrived about 8am, enjoying beautiful views from the window along the way. The part that freaked us out a little though was that there was absolutely no security check! But all was OK.

When we arrived in Christchurch we struck a really nice lady at the Thrifty booth. She told us that for some reason the system was showing that if we kept our hire car for one more day it would be $170 cheaper. So we did that, and she also told us petrol is $2.20ish in Queenstown so we prepaid for that to save some money as well so that we can bring the car back empty Monday night. Winning!

We drove into town and got a two hour car park. We came to Christchurch in 2001 and pretty much all I remember is rowing a boat in the gardens, and the pretty cathedral. Today’s Christchurch felt like somewhere I hadn’t really been. In September 2010 a 7.1 magnitude earthquake hit Christchurch, occurring early in the morning and causing a bit of damage. On February 22 2011, a 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck. However, though less on the Richter scale, this earthquake’s epicentre was closer to Christchurch’s CBD and occurred around lunchtime when many people were out and about. 130 people died at the CTV building, others died from falling rocks, others from buses crushed by crumbling walls. Overall, 185 people died. Buildings damaged in the 2010 quake were completely destroyed, and in the process of trying to restore Christchurch half the buildings in the CBD have been demolished. Liquefaction also occurred, meaning water soaked layers of silt and sand were shaken and spurted up from underneath many houses and buildings, causing them to collapse. 

Nowadays, Christchurch has a strange vibe. Part old beautiful buildings, part empty demolished lots, part really modern new constructions. There are roadworks and building works everywhere, with still quite a lot of temporary fencing and roadwork noises everywhere you go. Where do you even begin when the very centre of your city is destroyed? They’ve done really well here so far considering. The people here are very resilient. It will be interesting to visit again down the track and see how much has changed again. 

We walked around the botanical gardens and enjoyed the pretty flowers, then had a look inside the free Canterbury Museum. Unfortunately because we were short on time we didn’t have long, but the museum was extensive and very impressive. Our favourite part was the replica Paua shell house made to look like the one Fred and Myrtle Flutey from Bluff used to have. Even though Bluff is tiny and right down south in NZ, their paua shell covered walls attracted 1 million people in total over the 40 years it was open to the public!

As we then walked through to cathedral square, “EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ALRIGHT” was emblazoned on the side of the new art gallery building. And as we approached the cathedral, my stomach dropped. It’s so dilapidated and surrounded by temporary fencing, it’s also home to many pigeons at the moment. What was once a bustling, busy square like Fed Square at home was empty except for a handful of people and the pigeons that now call the caved in cathedral home. Apparently they haven’t yet decided whether to demolish it or restore it, so in the meantime it sits there as a reminder of the damage and destruction over seven years ago. Many other buildings in the square sit abandoned and boarded up too.

Our next stop was the transitional cathedral, a cathedral made of recycled materials serving as a temporary place of worship. We had a quick look inside and then went to the 185 white chairs - a memorial to the 185 people that died on February 22, 2011. This sits on the site of the CTV building, a multi storey building that crumbled in the 2011 earthquake and was the site of the most deaths in one place. The chairs were all different shapes and sizes. The ones that made me feel really really sad were the baby seats and high chairs.

Afterwards we headed to the Container Mall, that apparently used to be a series of shopping containers with food trucks and little shops in them. Most of these shops have now moved on, Rob said in 2016 when he was here the mall was still going. There were only two little food trucks there today though.

My friend Kahn had recommended a particular Greek place in here, so we hopped in the car and went to the Riccarton store instead. After a yummy souvlaki we headed off on our six hour journey to Queenstown. By sheer fluke we came across the Cookie Time factory that Rob had said he wanted to stop at if he had a chance. We bought a packet and kept going.

We were blessed with beautiful weather again for a while. Sunny half of the way to Queenstown with stunning views of the mountains along the way. We stopped at Lake Tekapo and the water was a beautiful turquoise colour. We also got to see a small chapel there by the water. A little further on we couldn’t quite make out Mt Cook behind some clouds, but could see the surrounding mountain range with little bits of snow coverage. I wonder how much smaller Franz Joseph Glacier is since we hiked it in 2001 due to global warming.

As we headed further south, the clouds descended. The rain got heavier and heavier the closer to Queenstown we got. We stopped at the supermarket in Cromwell because we had heard groceries were lots more expensive in Queenstown. By the time we were in our final hour’s drive the rain had really set in.

Luckily when we arrived in Queenstown it cleared. We checked in to our motel. Our room is the basement one and it’s nice and cosy with a comfy bed. We sinned a coat, scarf and beanie and got our Queenstown experience started properly after that - we went straight to Fergburger! This burger shop opened in 2001 and has become a sensation all over the world. And it didn’t disappoint, was delicious! There’s always a queue. We queued for about 15 minutes and then our food was ready in 10 so not bad.

So far I absolutely love it here. It is a mash up of two of my favourite places I've ever been - the water and hills and overall layout reminds me of Bergen in Norway, and the cute little streets with fairy lights in the cold weather reminds me of Zermatt in Switzerland. 

A fairly early night for us today after a huuuuuge day! Off to explore Arrowtown and Wanaka tomorrow while we still have our car. 

Love to all
Claire
Xoxox