He Says
First off, I’d like to apologize for the long delay in this next installment of the blog. Water was spilled on my laptop, which was followed by not being near a repair shop for a long time, then being told that’s the laptops f****d, and finally saving up money to buy a new one. Fun times!
Now you’ll also have to forgive me for a mediocre blog (at best), as at the time of breaking the previous laptop I was writing my part of the blog, and was even almost finished, when the incident occurred and my progress was lost. So now i’m stretching my memory back 3 or 4 months. On the other hand Vicky’s post was saved at the time, so her stories may be more in line with what actually happened!
YES there are libraries, and NO, I didn’t care to use one for writing the blog, university has shied me away from ever setting foot in one of those establishments ever again.
ANYWAY, if there’s one thing I do recall about Victoria’s week long birthday celebrations, it’s that it was quite expensive (but was anyone really expecting anything different?) !
We started off the holiday in style with a spa day at Lake Tekapo, which was…. nice? Honestly it’s so far in the past I can barely recall if anything interesting happened. But it was a nice location overlooking the lake, and the pools themselves were staggered up the side of the mountain, so all in all it was very tranquil and served to cure our aching muscles from shoveling pig shit for a few weeks!
After lake Tekapo we spent a few days travelling, reading books, and doing not a lot. We actually planned on doing a Jet boat experience on our way across to Christchurch, but this was the weekend where bridges were washed away from the storm waters, so unsurprisingly that got cancelled on us!
When we got to Christchurch we spent a few days doing the local zoos and attractions, such as; Willowbank wildlife Reserve, Orana wildlife park, and the Antarctic Centre. The Willowbank wildlife reserve is best described as a sort of petting zoo and sanctuary for many of NZ’s domestic animals, whereas the wildlife park was more typical of a zoo that you would find back in the UK. I think I enjoyed them both? The best experience for me though was the Antarctic centre, where you can pet huskies, ride on a Hagglund, get cuddles with huskies, experience a snow blizzard, and get tackled by multiple huskies. Can you guess which bit I enjoyed the most?
Vicky left in the notes to talk about an escape room we did… But I have no clue as to which one that was. So I’m going to skip over this. (EDIT: It was called Crate escapes in Christchurch, and was actually REALLY good, I definitely recommend travelling across the world to do it.)
There was also a bar called Arcadia which doubled down as a retro gaming arcade… So you can only imagine how much I enjoyed that! Hopefully I can find a picture somewhere for you guys…
Then for the last part of our mini vacation we hopped over to Akaroa for Vicky’s most anticipated present, swimming with dwarfism dolphins. (They’re called Hector doplhins, but just think of them as how I just described and you’re pretty much there.) After a bit of a fuss with weather, and a briefly manic girlfriend, all ended well and we got to go out and attempt to find some of these elusive creatures. It actually went rather well as we found them almost straight away (where many other boats didn’t see them all day), and they even stuck to Victoria like glue. So a big shout out to my mini dolphin buddies for helping make Victoria’s birthday one to remember!
Oh yeah, there was also a car show. Here’s another photo for you guys:
And yeah, I believe that’s most things. The next post will probably be up quite quickly about our time working on the pig farm, as I’m now being slave driven to catch up on all things that have happened in my life for the past 3 months. Woo!
So I guess I’ll see you shortly!
Ta ta.
She says:
This week we celebrated my birthday and explored some of the East Coast. We started off by travelling to Lake Tekapo, which gave us the opportunity to view some beautiful scenery on our journey. The size of the lake was amazing, it looked like the sea and there wasn’t a boat on the lake which made it very picturesque, especially as we were lucky with the weather. Unfortunately, the scenery was slightly spoiled by other tourists who were not as respectful of the statues and monuments in the area, by climbing all over them and posing rudely with them. In terms of things to do in the area, there isn’t too much, other than walks (Mt John), horse riding trails and the Spa there. The walks aren’t long but are quite strenuous, if you aren’t very fit, like Ryan and I, as they are quite steep. There isn’t very many shops in the town, and the shops that are there, are mainly orientated around tourism, unfortunately.
Next we headed to Mount Cook, and a word of warning for other travelers, there are no shops at Mount Cook, so stop to buy food beforehand, if you don’t want to eat at the ONE restaurant or at the Hotel. The prices aren’t bad with around 20 dollars for a pizza but we still were annoyed that the nearest shops were over an hour drive away. As for tourist shops, there were none, just chalet houses. The walk to view the base of Mt Cook, was a nice day out, and I even got to hold part of a glacier !!! The best part though, was the fact that walk was called the Hooker Valley Track ! (No hookers in site though, just a lot of campers, tourists and backpackers).
Then we headed to Christchurch, where we visited the Antarctic Centre, which I thoroughly recommend anyone visiting NZ to do. It was brilliant to experience the freezing climate of the Antarctic and the transport used there! And as Ryan has already said, possibly the best part were the huskies hugs :). Christchurch, was also where I got my Birthday Presents from Ryan -a Tragus piercing and two new earrings :)!
Our final destination before heading back to the Pig farm was Akaroa, where I swam with Hector dolphins. After, a little upset, where we unsure whether we would be able to do the cruise and swim because of the weather, it was confirmed we could swim with them. It was fantastic, the Hector dolphins came as close as a metre away and they were very friendly. The tour was very good, as we went out as a small group and the guides were great! We saw several dolphins and some Blue penguins as well! I was luckier than most on the tour, as the dolphin seemed to follow me around. 🙂
Sorry for the delay, the next post will be about our time at the pig farm !
He says, She Says 