We got up and unfortunately Ed had to work, but his girlfriend Aisha was kind enough to show us around town. She had been living in Christchurch for a week so she really didn't know where anything was though. It was nice to have company though. We walked to downtown and spent most of the time looking for a good place to have breakfast. We hadn't eaten since Great Taste the day before so both of us were quite hungry. We ended up eating in a rather odd cafe in the back of what appeared to be a half abandoned mall. Breakfast wasn't bad, but yours truly was left feeling slightly less than full. Not to waste time though, we walked about the city some more before heading back home. We unpacked a few things, repacked a few things, and then decided that it was time to hit the road. We wanted to make sure that we made to make sure that we got to see plenty of New Zealand before we had to take our van back. We headed up north, following highway 1 up the coast. We drove through wine country, taking note to stop in and do some wine tasting on the way back. Our intent was to go to the northern part of the island, explore the coast, and then come back through the center of the South Island before ending back at Christchurch. We made it to Kaikoura in the early evening. We had been driving along the coast for most of the day and it was quite nice. The road wove along with the landscape, even cutting under mountains instead of heading further inland. We stopped once to take a picture and met a wandering crazy man who talked for several minutes without ever finishing a sentence. A brief sample of his ramble:
"Yeah my sister lives in Australia, been working there for a year, she's a good worker, been in lots of different business, i'm in real esate, the market keeps changing, guys over there will screw you though, gotta go to the guys over here, got myself a new hp the other day, came in a bag, got it for 10 bucks, buncha other stuff in the bag, just gotta get it set up..."
He went on for several minutes while Maria and I stood there. He continually asked where we were staying for the night, and we were assuming he was either going to ask for a ride or for a place to stay. Luckily, he finished his rant abruptly, said his good byes, and walked off. Odd indeed. We drove through Kaikoura, decided we wern't ready for dinner, parked, and ducked into a pub. We ordered two beers, costing 7 dollars each (ridiculous). after our beer we walked the beach for a while. Kaikoura is famous for its sperm whale and seal sighting, but as it wasn't really the season we wern't expecting to see much. The beach at Kaikoura was quite a bit different than the other beachs we'd been too. Instead of sand, it was composed entierly of small rocks that were all smooth and ovalish in shape. As we walked I pointed to a large brown lump ahead of us and joked that it looked like an animal. Maria said that it was a piece of wood, so we both ignored it. Ignored it that is until we got closer and realized it was a giant seal. We had read that you aren't supposed to get too close to the seals because they will attack, but this one looked like it was about to roll over and die so we decided it was safe (probably not the right decision, but we're young and stupid and invincible). We took lots of pictures of it and I tried to touch it but it kept growling and opening its mouth so I never got within reach of it. After a while it started stretching and doing some seal yoga. We took more pictures and talked about what the heck a seal was doing here all by itself. We debated throwing rocks at it to try and get it to move around a bit but decided that it probably had enough problems already. We left it lying there and continued our walk. We suppered that night at an Irish B&B that was supposed to have excellent food for people on a budget. I guess that a budget in New Zealand means that someone has like 50 million extra dollars to spend because the place was expensive as crap. We ended up ordering the bread platter and a side of vegetables. Lame yes, but we're starving college students who are traveling so we don't have much money (hint hint parents). Actually, our meal turned out to be quite good. The bread was very plentiful and featured three different dips, and the vegetables were a meal in the themselves. I had a tummy ache so we decided to sleep in the B&B parking lot. We hid our van behind a much larger camper and turned in.
"Yeah my sister lives in Australia, been working there for a year, she's a good worker, been in lots of different business, i'm in real esate, the market keeps changing, guys over there will screw you though, gotta go to the guys over here, got myself a new hp the other day, came in a bag, got it for 10 bucks, buncha other stuff in the bag, just gotta get it set up..."
He went on for several minutes while Maria and I stood there. He continually asked where we were staying for the night, and we were assuming he was either going to ask for a ride or for a place to stay. Luckily, he finished his rant abruptly, said his good byes, and walked off. Odd indeed. We drove through Kaikoura, decided we wern't ready for dinner, parked, and ducked into a pub. We ordered two beers, costing 7 dollars each (ridiculous). after our beer we walked the beach for a while. Kaikoura is famous for its sperm whale and seal sighting, but as it wasn't really the season we wern't expecting to see much. The beach at Kaikoura was quite a bit different than the other beachs we'd been too. Instead of sand, it was composed entierly of small rocks that were all smooth and ovalish in shape. As we walked I pointed to a large brown lump ahead of us and joked that it looked like an animal. Maria said that it was a piece of wood, so we both ignored it. Ignored it that is until we got closer and realized it was a giant seal. We had read that you aren't supposed to get too close to the seals because they will attack, but this one looked like it was about to roll over and die so we decided it was safe (probably not the right decision, but we're young and stupid and invincible). We took lots of pictures of it and I tried to touch it but it kept growling and opening its mouth so I never got within reach of it. After a while it started stretching and doing some seal yoga. We took more pictures and talked about what the heck a seal was doing here all by itself. We debated throwing rocks at it to try and get it to move around a bit but decided that it probably had enough problems already. We left it lying there and continued our walk. We suppered that night at an Irish B&B that was supposed to have excellent food for people on a budget. I guess that a budget in New Zealand means that someone has like 50 million extra dollars to spend because the place was expensive as crap. We ended up ordering the bread platter and a side of vegetables. Lame yes, but we're starving college students who are traveling so we don't have much money (hint hint parents). Actually, our meal turned out to be quite good. The bread was very plentiful and featured three different dips, and the vegetables were a meal in the themselves. I had a tummy ache so we decided to sleep in the B&B parking lot. We hid our van behind a much larger camper and turned in.
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