Back to ChCh (Or Christchurch to non-locals)
8th May, Christchurch, New Zealand
With Kaikoura and the whole whale-watching thing pretty much done we didn't have much else to do in New Zealand (or so we thought) except head back for Christchurch where we began our tour of South Island and where we would end our stint in beautiful New Zealand. Kaikoura is not far from Christchurch (or ChCh as locals like to abbreviate it) - we got up late and didn't hurry down there. We made a brief stop on the way to check out the local seal colony (lazy looking, unphazed by tourists):
After the seal spotting we continued on to ChCh, and once we got there just stayed overnight in some quiet street (aren't camper vans great?).
The next day we had to pack up all our stuff and get the surrogate Ethel that had been our home for the last three weeks (almost) back to factory settings. Leave nothing behind. But before we took the van back to the rental place, we made our way over to see another person that we met in Turkey in 2002 (just as we had Ted and Barbara), namely Brent, an accountant who works for Heinz (aka Watties in NZ) and who could therefore correctly be labelled as a 'bean counter'.
Whatever you might think of accountants, Brent does not fit the mould. He's not a boring suit kind of guy, in fact he's quite the opposite, as anyone who was with us on our tour round Turkey will attest to. We had tried to get in touch when we first got to ChCh but he wasn't free, so we had to just try our luck at the tail end of our trip round NZ. Once we got to Brent's place we discovered that he had already made plans for the evening: "Ah, I'm having an anniversary do with my girlfriend (Jude), we're going out for a meal."
Oh dear. Talk about feeling like you're intruding ...
"But it's OK, you're welcome to come along."
Feeling better about the prospect now.
"Oh, we wouldn't want to intrude," says Manda.
"It's not a problem," says Brent. "In fact I took the liberty of booking you a place anyway."
Suddenly it didn't feel like we were intruding and more like we were joining a happy band of people for a night out at a restaurant in ChCh. It now felt like a good way to end the NZ stint.
Our venue was a place called MyThai and Monkey Bar (I saw no monkeys), and we had a room to ourselves, which was perfect, because:
- we were quite noisy
- it had a whole bunch of cozy cushions that meant you could, after each course, just sprawl back until the next course arrived.
All in there were 10 of us there, and as the photos below suggest, everyone seemed to have a good time!
Jude (mouth open) and Brent (eyes shut) enjoying themselves at MyThai, Christchurch.
This really is quite an innocent photo. Sally (underneath) was ill, and
Suzy (on top) was pretending to snog her (or to use a local term - 'pash
her') ... but honestly it's all quite innocent. No really, it was!
It was a great way to finish our time in NZ - with a bunch of people whom we'd not met before (bar one) but with whom we got along really well, had a great laugh and we'd eaten well too. When you're travelling it's all too common to miss out on this kind of thing. Budget is a consideration, but you can't beat a raucos night out of good food, good beer and good company.