This is what happens when you fly with Jet Star (Oz version of Easyjet). We weren’t to thrilled to be flying with a budget airline, considering the cost of our ticket, but not much we can do about it. And our morning took another turn for the worse, as we waited to board, Liverpool got pasted by Arsenal 5-2, and Ev realised that we left our picture tube at the check-in desk. Luckily, she managed to get this back just in time for the last boarding call!!
It was a 3hr flight, with a 3hr time difference, so we arrived around lunchtime. NZ has the strictest customs in the world, and our bags got searched – they also took out our tent to check it for dirt and seeds!!
When we left the airport, we realised how different NZ was to Oz. It was so peaceful, so quiet. There was a thick layer of low cloud (not quite fog) over the city, which gave the atmosphere a really dense feel, and it just muffled all sound, not that there was much noise anyway…
We checked into Chester St Backpackers, and we were in a self-contained cottage across the road. We were sharing with another couple, but we only saw them when they left the next day and no one turned up to replace them. So, we pretty much had the place to ourselves which was great ;)
For our first look around the city, we headed down to the Cathedral Square. This was about a 10-minute walk along the river from Chester St, where willow trees over hang the riverbanks, and kids were feeding the ducklings, and we could already see that this was a beautiful place.
The Cathedral Square was quite nice, and we stopped for some lunch and then nipped into the tourist office. We wanted to ride the gondola into the mountains, but it was too cloudy. There was also a tram ride, gondola up the river, and Antarctica museum, but we decided to just chill out and relax instead and try get over our colds.
We explored a bit of the city, located the library so we could do more blogging and went for a walk to the supermarket - seeing the less attractive side of the city. On our way back, we stopped for dinner by the cathedral and had a really nice curry – Evelyn had the Mango curry, which was one of the best curries she’s ever had!! On our walk back to Chester St, we were surprised to see the ladies of the night loitering only a few minutes away from our place. It just didn’t seem to fit with the area…
Next day, we just wondered around the city again. It was still really heavy with clouds, so we still couldn’t see the hills surrounding the city. We had a look inside the cathedral and around the shops before we visited a Maori gallery selling artefacts carved from bone (both human and whale). Afterwards we headed to the market in Cathedral Square and then on to the museum, which told us about NZ and the Maori history and had exhibitions on about the South Pole - this was one of the best museums we’ve been to and it was really well displayed.
We had lunch upstairs overlooking the gardens and then went for a wander around the beautiful botanical gardens and the river with our Starbucks ;) In the evening we chilled out as we had the place to ourselves, so we could cook dinner at home and watched a DVD – The Incredibles.
Mowhawk chick
It’s a shame to leave here, as its so peaceful and quiet, but there isn’t really a great deal to do apart from lazy at the coffee shops. Now suitably relaxed, we were ready to explore NZ, and went to pick up our car. We were given the tourist car – a real heap with over 200,000km on the clock. We weren’t at all impressed – Ace Car Hire hasn’t lived up to its name – but as we’d waited ½ hour already we took it (Blue Taurus Bluebird) and began our journey…
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