Christchurch

The drive from Queenstown to Christchurch was a long 7 hours on a bus with no heating in the freezing cold snow!! We stopped at Lake Tekapo for lunch. It was a really beautiful spot and you could literally spend hours taking perfect pictures.
The Church of the Good Shepherd was here also. The scenery on the whole drive was breath-taking as with most of the South Island.

The next morning I went on a day trip to Akaroa. On the way you pass Lake Ellemere which is the largest salt water lake in NZ. It is also very shallow and contains 100 different varieties of water fowl. Next we stopped at Birdlings Flat beach which is a stoney beach full of gem stones, you just have to know what you are looking for!! We arrived in Akaroa at about midday. Akaroa is a French and British settlement. A French captain had essentially bought land from the Maori chief in the area, he returned to France for supplies and to bring people over, only to return and see the British flag flying in the bay. While he was away the Treaty of Waitangi had been signed, bringing the land under British "protection". However the British gave the French some land in the area and also gave some to the Germans. The whole area is known as Banks Peninsula and it was formed by two massive volcanic erruptions which essentially blew the volcanoes apart and forming open shell volcanoes. It's a lovely place, but rather sleepy in winter! Back to Queenstown that night.

Next morning I was up nice and early to catch the Tranzalpine train which travels through the alps from Christchurch to Greymouth and back in the one day. It meant spending 8 hours on a train but the scenery made the time fly and the commentary throughout was brilliant. It is really amazing how they managed to hollow out all the tunnels through the mountains and not one of them went off course! The longest tunnel is 8.5km and it took 15 years to construct! The train also passes through Arthur's Pass national park, which is 737km above sea-level. The area is named after Arthur Bodin, the son of an engineer who sent his sons into the alps to find the easiest way through and Arthur was the one to succeed.

The next day was spent in Christchurch. As it was a Saturday, most shops were closed! So I decided to go to the Antartic museum and two girls from the hostel joined me.It is situated out by the airport and anybody travelling to the Antartic has to go through the Antartic centre next door to the museum. As such, Christchurch has been named the gateway to Antartica. The museum was very interesting and even contained a snow room which similated a snow storm in Antartica with the temperatures falling to -25 degrees celsius. My jeans felt like they had frozen stiff! The lowest temperature ever recorded in Antartica was -79 degrees celsius!! If you were to go out in this temperature wearing normal clothes, you would freeze to death within 40 seconds!! Fossils of dinosaurs and plant life have been found in Artartica, indicating that it was once part of the land known as Gondwana land, before all the continents broke up. That's the end of the lesson for today!

Christchurch is a great city, with a great atmosphere and is definitely worth spending a bit of time in. Lots of culture and lots to see and do, you couldn't get bored if you tried!!