Signing off on this adventure

The rainbow that greeted us when we arrived in Rotorua.

Felt like this blog needed one last chapter, so I'm signing off on this New Zealand adventure - and am ready for the next one, albeit a less exciting Canberra adventure!

Halloween 2010

We expected so much from our New Zealand adventure, and got a very different experience, but one that far exceeding anything we imagined. There is no chance we thought we'd be in a yacht race, or fly across the country to play connect four in bunny costumes! I never thought I'd brave a backpackers hostel, but I think the funnest moments have been coz of the people we have met in places like Cactus Jacks.



Cactus Jacks



We are both coming back different girls, or slightly different: I don't think either me or Chrissy will hear the word 'cotton bud' or sealegs' again without laughing like idiots, and getting distracted will forever be affectionately known as a 'Justin moment'.
I think we will always shudder if we see a fat guy in a cardboard hat and be outraged at anyone using the word debaucherous!

But no regrets, (well, I regret the three days of cold showers before I learnt that backpackers have warm showers too), this has been the happiest 29 days of my life...

So - if i had a champagne, a vodka or a kiwi fruit cocktail  I would cheers (and look everyone in the eye) to an amazing holiday and the most amazing people in the world. To all our new friends, keep in touch, and if you are ever in Canberra (or Sydney, no one comes to Canberra!) look us up coz we probably owe you a drink!

And Chrissy - thank you for everything and sorry about the energetic early mornings that followed every late night. I don't think I have ever laughed as hard as I did in the last month or had as much fun. Glad that when I booked this trip it was with you, coz it wouldn't have been the same with anyone else. Also don't think anyone else would have made it back in one piece, so congratulations!



Katie, Llior, Some Girl, Chrissy, The band guy

www.chrissyandkatieonenightonly.bl ogspot.com

Christchurch

So the flight from Auckland to Christchurch was really not that bad. Actually quite a good flight, got to see a beautiful sunset and i think the alcohol had pretty much worn off. We did find out that Christchurch had had another big aftershock thing while we were in the air - luckily missed it!

Got back to Christchurch and we were absolutely buggered - although our luggage came out straight away which was good. So we headed to the hotel, watched a little bit of Letterman and then crashed out in prepaaration for a big Tuesday. Also figured out how to work the water temperature in thsi hotel. Just couldn't figure out how to keep the water in the shower and not spread it throughout the bathroom.

Tuesday started pretty late, but with bagels. and not just any bagels - the best bagels in New Zealand. We headed to Cafe Decadence (opposite Christchurch Casino) for the second time because there bagels are just a maz ing! and they remembered us - which was lovely and embarrassing! After breakfast we headed back for some last minute souvenier  shopping - both spent a small fortune - and then went to find Fudge Cottage. There was supposed to be a tour - but as usual we were running late and missed it, so we bought some fudge and then headed to the botanic gardens.

We were feeling quite lazy (something new and different for us) so we jumped on this caterpillar thing which drove you round the gardens, while we ate our fudge. it was not, unfortunately, a giant caterpillar that drove you round, it was a bus thing called Caterpillar. Haha - Christchurch must be NZ's city of  love coz it was almost third date for me and Chrissy - they gave us a big fluffy blanket for the Caterpillar ride.  We though it was a blanket for snuggling but the winds just got really cold at the gardens. Um other than the romantic caterpillar ride, it was just gardens, saw a fountain and some more cool trees and the lady was super duper  smart about knowing her foliage.

After thet we hurried back to the hotel to dump our stuff and head to a melbourne cup celebration. Now the nation of NZ does not stop for Melbourne cup -  it was bizarre. We went to His Lordships Bar and there was like 9 people there. Crazy. But sipping champagne in Sol Square is not a terrible way to spend the race... We hung out there for a bit, drinking our champagne and watching the NZ races they showed after  - discussed owning a racehorse together (named superglue - which i think is mean but Chrissy bagsed naming rights). After that we headed down to find a taxi to get us to Lone Star for dinner. Was wierd coz we were the only drunk people walking down the street on Melbourne Cup day! Which would never happen back home. and the champagne had gone straight to my head, so it was looking and laughing when I thought a pigeon was attacking me and screamed and ran, arms flailing!!!

Lone Star was not as amazing as Rotorua or Wellington, (one good thing about Wellington, which got voted 4th best city in the world to visit or something - unbelievable coz Wellington was both out least favourite places ) but still good. Pretty sad coz the first LoneStar ever got ruined in the earthquake. The taxi driver on the way did try and sret us up with his son ... ew. Taxi driver on the way back was even funnier. He was talking and chatting  and then told us he was famous in Australia. we were like Right -o then.... and thought he was a total cuckoo but then I asked what he was famous for and he showed su a photo album - him and his wife are Terri and Steve Irwin look a likes. For real  too! His wife actually looked like what Terri Irwin wished she looked like , like a pretty, not butch Terri, and the taxi driver was a bit old but still looked like him. Absolutely crazy! Anyways after that came like a mammoth packing effort - after like 2 hours we got fed up and went for cocktails - they ran out of Wow's after our first so we just drank a few different stuff and shots and then headed back for our last Christchurch sleep.

This morning came another packing session and then I went to move the car close. Took me half an hour to get trhe car to the next street coz i got  so lost and confused. oops ... um eventually got our stuff ion the car and went back to Cafe Decadence for bag4els round 3. Seriously, if anyone is in Christchurch - go get bagels. Amazing!

Oh ands sad news - I am heading home minus an aussie sim card and my cowboy boots. How i lost both cowboy boots I have no idea! They were my favourite shoes ever too.

After our breakfast we headed to New Brighton to check out Scribes circle things and thenhad to leave for the airport. Got incredibly lost trying to get back and then, kinda luckily, got pulled over by a police car. She asked how much I though the speed limit was, unfortunately I guessed 80 and it was 50. I felt really bad but there was like paddocks on the side and they don't have a lot of signpost. Not that I bored the copper with excuses, i just apologised and luckily the copper was so nice, got off with a warning and some excellent directions which got us to the airport in no time - At a very respectable 50 km an hour. Lesson learned!

And now we are at the airport, came in over luggage limit, but minusing Chrissys unused luggage was only 3kgs over. Normally that would cost 60 bucks, but the lady was so nice and just gave it to me for free! and now we are just waiting to depart. I am so so so sad to leave. I have a tear and will probably shed more.

Halloween...

So after a nap - we got ready for Halloween - little dresses at the ready!

Went to Skycity for dinner first and got a message from Better Looking Tom saying that the carpark staff were not drinking and at AA playing connect four. We were like "wtf? omg this food is amazing" and that was it... but as we headed past carpark after dinner on the way to our hotel... the carpark was closed! Damn!

Anyways we went back to the hotel to add our bunny ears and tailand got ready to head out.... ran into the hotel porter who said he'd come party with us and then got into the street and realised we had no idea where to go to find a party! We decidedto just head to Andrew Andrew coz we had been there before and it was close, and we turn up and there is the carpark guys playing Connect Four.... felt a bit silly for thinking that the entire staff of a bar were attending an alcoholics anonymous meeting.

Anyways, it was a tiny bit awkward - Chrissy and Katie, dressed in tiny little dresses, playboy bunny ears and a big fluffy tail (left the cuffs and bowties at the hotel - luckily or unluckily - depends how you wanna look at it! ) crashing a staff party where almost everyone is in jeans and a tee. Felt overdressed (and underclothed). Anyways so we warmed up with a few games of Connect 4 - which neither Chrissy and I are very excellent at - which turned into extreme connect 4 - only 3 seconds to make a move. After that we went for a walk through the harbour and ended up at a dingy pub, but the disgusting old man stares got to much so we headed back to AA for like, one more drink, before going back to the hotel.

One more drink turned into a lot more drinks and the most interesting game of 21 I have played ... Very random way to spend Halloween... but it was crazy fun and quiet and loud all at the same time .. and we had a blast.

This morning I tried my hardest to be super quiet and not wake Chrissy! Which would have been super great if the stupid hotel had not tried to do housekeeping at 9 in the morning... and they kept coming back - we had the safety chain and the privacy please tag all up and everything! Grrr.... Anyway after late checkout we finally headed to skytower to do the typical tourist stuff.

Skytower = awesome! Auckland is absolutely beautiful - i am sad to say goodbye tonight! We went up and did both viewing decks - the highest one was 220 metres - we lost our stomachs on the way up! Saw a guy bungy off and am having second thoughts about my desire to skydive! Might stick with the original plan of being a chicken! After that we did a bit more tacky tourist shopping - both getting a tomato shaped tomato sauce bottle - which are all the rage in NZ. Everywhere has themand they are super cute!

We also headed up for a game of roulette so we could get a souveneir poker chip. Did not get very lucky on the roulette table but it was fun and we didnt gamble much money - felt poor placing single bets and cashing in $20 notes when everyone else had hundreds!

After our gambling we headed off for more shopping - stopped by Timezone and took some pretty awesome photos in a photo booth with adlib wind!

And now - we are just killing time before our flight back to Christchurch. I have a terrible feeling this flight is going to be even worse than yesterdays -

only 2 more sleeps ion New Zealand :(

oh and for the record:

de·bauch·er·y
. pl. de·bauch·er·ies
1.
a. Extreme indulgence in sensual pleasures; dissipation.

Air New Zealand - Crazy About Rugby - Safety Video

Best Aeroplane safety message ever...
Me and Chrissy laughed so hard and actually listened to it!!!


Actually even funnier is the Rico Air New Zealand videos - best airline ever!

Christchurch City aka The Garden City aka The City that Shines

Aaah Scribe... Christchurch is so much fun! I love Christchurch.
Ok so last time I posted I was like - just going to jump out of an aeroplane tomorrow! and then I absolutely could not sleep I was so excited and nervous and excited and having dreams about being planted and becoming a cool tree and then waking up in excitement. Terrible sleep! But then I woke for real, called the Skydive lady - and she said I couldn't skydive coz of the rain. and when I bothered to look out the window - RAIN! I was so bummed..... What an anticlimax! Kaikoura is beautiful - but not exciting and there is not much to do in the rain so we decided to jump straight in the car and head for Christchurch!  We had Scribe on the CD player and we were pretty excited - although it got very old very quickly when I accidently went around Christchurch, we had to take some tunnel thing to Lyttleton and then go backwards into Christchurch - but didn't matter coz eventually we got to Christchurch! Was not as damaged as i feared it would be - a lot of scaffolding around and stuff -  but the actual city was okay. And by okay i mean absolutely beautiful! We just kinda parked the car and walked for a bit, saw the Cathedral and the old architecture and the city was amazing - except for the shopping - which was not so amazing!

We decided to book our dinner on a tram for Friday night - so I called and booked and hten we looked for a hostel to stay - tried like 4 and finally got in to one callled Dorset House - which is like this massive old house with gardens and everything. So we turn up and guess who is just checking in herself? Llior! Which is this absolutely fantastic Welsh girl that we met in Rotorua when we went rafting and she braved the sledging! It was such a surprise coz we had loved her but then couldn't find her on facebook, so to randomly meet up in Christchurch was fantastic.

So we lug our bags up this old stiarcase and get to the room to change for dinner. Another hostel, and yet another shower I couldn't use... and then I couldn't find anything to wear, so i ripped everything outta my suitcase, cursing and chucking stuff around, in a sick of living outta a suitcase kinda way. Felt much better but then got angry again coz I had to clean my mess! haha oops

Dinner on a tram - or, as I prefer to call it, "Date Night" - the tram was couples, celebrating anniversaries and weddings. The fake candle  on our table was a nice touch - super romantic!. Was bizarre and hilarious - the host congratulated everyone individually as he did the rounds - me and Chrissy got a heartfelt "More drinks girls?" Was a great meal though, and a beautiful way to see the city as the tram did the whole loop track like 8 or 9 times.

Anyways after the tram we thought we would head to Sol Square for one drink.... so we got changed and found a taxi and get to Sol Square and it is amazing. I feel in love with Christchurch the minute I saw Sol Square - we headed to some little bar at first and then off to Minx for cocktails.  - oh and turns out our hotel for the last couple of days we are in New Zealand is directly above Minx! Best hotel ever!

Ok so at Minx we ordered these cocktails called "Wow" apparently they are so amazing they cannot tell you whats in them... so the guy makes them for us and WOW - it actually makes you say wow coz it is so amazing! It was like strawberrys and amazing and vanilla maybe all mixed together.... so our one drink turned into three cocktails - but they were amazing cocktails and we did meet this guy who said he would take us to party on Monday in Christchurch - so was an evening well spent - coz its hard to find people to party with on a Monday night!

So saturday was the day me and Chrissy were going to get an early start and devote the whole day to exploring Christchurch (aka. finding shops in Christchurch). We walked down the street off Dorset and stopped for breakfast, at 11.30. So plan A failed, but it was the most amazing breakfast ever.

After that we headed for a tattoo shop to get inked! Well Chrissy anyway, totally bummed coz I really want a second tattoo, but I coudn't decide what I wanted so I refrained from getting one and just sat and watched Chrissy in pain! The artist was really nice, and an amazing artist, but kinda slow, so two hours later, Chrissy left the shop in pain but with a beautiful new tattoo, and I left the shop not in pain and wishing I was...

After that we did some shopping, so we got in a taxi and asked him to drive us to the biggest mall in Christchurch. HE got the wrong one coz we ended up at a mall with only one level! Chrissy and I thought that we only had half a map for a bit, must of made people laugh coz we were very confused. Anyways after that failure we got another taxi to a slightly bigger mall and did a fair bit of shopping before heading back to Dorset House. Where we meet up with Llior and arranged to go see a NZ band who were playing a free gig at Dux de Lux!

Anyways, we were so excited, because aside from Maddy and Llior (both fantastic girls we met in Rotorua), we have not really made friends with any girls in NZ! Girls just don't seem to like us! And, as successful as the date in the tram was, it was great to have another girl for our girls night out! So, us three girls start walking to this gig, in hopes of finding a taxi (didn't happen), and just partied on - the bands were not really my usual thing, but the support act, Bellusira, and the main act, These Four Walls, were both really really good! Us three girls danced and swayed and shook it like maniacs - probably looked funny considering the type of music they were playing but we had a ball!

After that I was like, Sol Square!!! Llior had never been so we swapped numbers with the band coz they wanted to meet us there and headed to Sol Sq, which was even more amazing than the night before. We shouted Llior a Wow cocktail - she described it perfectly as "Its like the pink panther is dancing and F***ing in my mouth at the same time" <--- it really was that good! Anyways a lot more dancing followed, some guys from Bellusira and These Four Walls joined us at the Fish and Chip shop, (oh and turns out Bellusira are doing a show in Canberra in November! They are from Melbourne btw, so we will go to that! Yay) and we danced like absolute idiots, only stopping every couple of minutes to shout out our love of Christchurch! Sensibly, we called it a night at about 2:30 (sensibly is not usually a saturday night word, but we did have a 10 o'clock flight). SaId good bye to the fantastic Llior (who will be in Sydney when we are so partying in one week! Woot!) and slept for a couple of hours before we had to wake up and get to the airport. The last minute packing was a nightmare - coz we only bought carry on with us to Auckland and left the rest in the car.

Flight was the worst flight of my life! I usually don't get hung over, but the combination of a big night out, no sleep and the stupid aeroplane did not agree with me! and then, when we went to collect our luggage, we waited half an hour at the carousel, the same bags doing  the loop in front of us until no bags were left... and I was like, OMG, my hair straightener is in my bag - and my bag might be in Wellington! so i was like freaking out about the potential loss of my hair straightener, when finally we asked the grumpy airport man and our bags came out! What a relief!

Then just headed to Auckland, had some lunch, last minute essential costume shopping and about to go get ready for Halloween! Woot! We might have missed the actual party, but Christchurch was amazing and tonight should be even better!

Seal Pups -

Today we left Nelson for Kaikoura - home of Scribes Seafood Place (actual name = Continental Seafood, but perhaps a name change would improve business)

We loved Nelson, it was so beautiful - exactly what we thought Paihia would be. This morning though was spent looking at our travel plans. This whole Halloween thing did not work out well for us!

So we spent $200 each on flights to get to Auckland for this Halloween party, which we thought was on 31st October - Halloween! Turns out when we got told about it our brains were full of excitement and vodka and probably distracted by one of the very hot boys In NZ and we didn't listen to the actual date, 30th October - Not Halloween! So we went to change our flights today - was going to cost an additional $560 plus an extra nights accomodation. I'm usually all for paying ridiculous amounts of money for a crazy adventure - but somehow we made a sensible decision and decided to skip the actual halloween party and celebrate twice. On saturday in Christchurch and then in Auckland on sunday! Should still be amazing fun and that means two halloween costumes. We are excited to see the North Island again - I just love it up there!

Anyways - after sorting out flights and running some other errands in town we jumped in the car and headed to Happy Valley Adventures for Skywire - the worlds longest flying fox. We headed up and its like over km long I think. Anyways it was not too scary - we still screamed and I got a bit scared at the part where we were just dangling over a massive drop. But we did it! and when we got back the guy gave us a free ride so we did it again - was even funner the second time round!

After that we just drove through Blenheim to Kaikoura. The drive was really beautiful and, out of the same eye I could see beach and snow capped mountains. Not often that something makes me speechless, and I wasn't speechless seeing that, but I think a lesser person may have been! 

The most incredible amazing thing happened though, the guy at the Flying Fox place, Dazza, told us about a place where the adult seals drop the seal pups off during winter. Like a seal creche! So we stop off at a place that starts with O, trek 10 minutes (thats 560 metres), I almost got like killed by swooping birds and then realise that we are at the wrong 10 minute walk! Least we got some exercise! Drove a bit further down the highway and found the correct place starting with O. We do our 10 minute walk (was shorter for me, I did leap and run in excitement at some points) and arrive at a beautiful pool under a waterfall, which has like 6 or 7 seal pups playing around in it. It was like amazing, still not a speechless moment, but I LOVE seals and they were so cute and funny. We watched for a bit, they were twirling and splashing and jumping, more active than the playful dolphins! After a bit I sat on a rock really close to the water and they came up and smelled me and touched me with their nose. They were very curious and had gross milky eyes, but they were jsut so amazing! It was like the coolest thing ever. We stayed about half an hour watching, but on our way out this poor seal started seal jumping through the forest bit. I was a bit worried he was lost, but apparently the mum seals come back and check on them every now and again.

After we left the seals we headed straight into Kaikoura, checked into the Albatross backpackers (really sute, but rooms are tinier than anywhere else we have stayed - Chrissy and I cannot both have open suitcases at the same time!) We got some dinner, I ordered flounder, which was absolutely beautiful once I got over the 'im eating a fish named after a character from the Little Mermaid' Luckily it wasn't yellow and blue. While I sat and ate my fresh fish I looked out onto the ocean and snow capped mountains <---- just cannot get over being able to see the snow capped mountains overlooking the ocean.

Tomorrow I am hoping to be brave enough to Skydive - then we are headed to CHIRSTCHURCH! Yay! Cannot wait - we are going to eat in a tram!

Nelson, Beetles, Frisbee - One week left :(

Well today we arrived in Nelson and it sure is beautiful!

We are getting a bit lazy, so again it was a mad dash to get out of the Villa. I'm begining to think I should of gone on more sleepovers as a kid, coz I couldn't use the showers there either! Today we were headed to the World of Wearable Art, so we wore our cutest dresses and hairpieces.

Now everyone had warned me about driving on the South Island, and I kinda thought they meant the south of the South Island. Turns out South Island means South Island. The road to Nelson was up and down mountains and so windy, and there are not a lot of barriers between the road and the long drop right next to it! So carefully and slowly (two words no one has ever used to describe my driving) I drove the mountains to Nelson. Good news - I will be an expert at driving the Clyde Moutnain to the Coast when I get back  - might organise a trip just to show off my mountain driving skills.Also stopped off at a chocolate factory, and I took a free sample coz I felt rude if I didn't. Confirmed that I definetely do not like milk chocolate!




Nelson is beautiful, parked just outside Starbucks! (but the town was so beautiful I skipped it til after lunch)We just walked around a bit, enjoying the sites until our stomachs started thinking for us and we headed off in search of food. Found this little place called When In Rome and ate the best lasagne of my life. No jokes, even better than the Labor Club.

After lunch we headed to the information place to find the World of Wearable Art and Classic Cars - I, being the most considerate travel buddy ever, took Chrissy the scenic way, through a carpark and past a car dealer, to check out some future classics. Just in case we couldn't find the museum. Turns out that was an unneccessary precaution, my map reading abilities have gotten so improved that I directed us there no worries.

The museum was smaller than expected but still cute, the Wearable Arts was amazing. I got some inspiration for my Katy Perry outfit and was in awe of the clothes. Some where amazing, and some were just a little wierd, made of things like straws and noodles! No raw meat dress a la Lady Gaga but still incredible. They had some outifts on a carousel and some seats in front, coz me and Chrissy got so dressed up and were so into it, I totally felt like I was front row at a fashion show. How very Nicole Richie of us! We also watched a DVD of the award show and really wished we had gone. Next up was the classic cars, which, Bro Montana - if you are reading this - you would have loved! Not that me and Chrissy were not impressed. They had a Deloreon - so that made Chrissy happy - and even though I cannot name most cars, I do appreciate the beauty of a Cadillac! Honestly - if anyone wants to buy me a Cadillac I would not say no!

After WOW, we headed into town for shopping (surpirse), we went to Fashion Island (which was not in fact an Island) and filled up on Starbucks before heading to teh Backpackers. We are staying at The Bug, which has heaps of VW Beetle paraphanelia (coz there is no way I would be staying anywhere with insect paraphanelia) OMG - Chrissy was totally brave today, there was a spider on the outside windscreen of our car at the chocolate factory, and i like jumped out of the car and stood back in fear. She just, cool as a cucumber, flicked it off and stomped on it! Pretty heroic deed in my books. and so much for no spiders in NZ.

So, back to the backpackers - oh and me and Chrissy discovered we are actually Flashpackers, not backpackers, so that makes us feel far superior to the horrid backpackers who laughed at our suitcases in Paihia. - um off track again. This backpackers is so lovely. If Cactus Jacks wasn't even better, this one woudl totally be our favourite. Although, (and I'm pretty sure Dan laughed at this when we suggested it for Cactus Jacks in the Thermal Pool) they did give us chocolates on our pillows! So that sways in their favour. Even if I don't actually like chocolate! This place is the second best back packers ever!

Um after bring our bags in, and this time the guy who laughed at us for having so much stuff only chuckled and then lead me through the house opening the doors for me. How lovely. We decided to pretend to be real backpackers and head to the supermarket - if only for tissues and a Frisbee.We decided to walk,  so we headed down the street, got distracted by a cool tree at the park, played on the swing for a bit and walked a little further up the street before we woke up to ourselves and realised that walking really was not our thing. We then headed back to the car and drove to the supermarket. Which was fun! Everything in New Zealand is fun. When we were at the movies the other day we saw a toothpaste ad that we both liked, promised that if you brush your teeth before bed you would wake up with fresh morning breath. So we got us some new toothpaste, and chips and dip and (coz we couldn't find a frisbee) some plastic plates!

Back at the Bug we took our Frisbee to the park across the road (very convenient) and played a rather short lived game of frisbee before our chips and dip picnic!

So that's all from Nelson so far, going to go on the Skywire tomorrow and  get some Hells Pizza for dinner. Won't be the same without Jay, but we are being super saver backpackers and getting two pizzas for dinner. Which will be for dinner and breakfast and lunch tomorrow!

Bad News - me and Chrissy just realised we booked our flights and accomodation in Auckland  for the wrong night. Holy crap!