Our thirty days are up! Its been cold (and expensive) but definitely worth it. Many people think of travelling as freedom, but having to rely on public transport, other people do do your cooking/washing and having to find a bed every night is quite restricting. Being in a camper-van is complete freedom. As long as we have food and petrol we can drive down anywhere... pretty much anywhere - our insurance doesn't cover off roading. Not once in a month I have to look up train timetables, book a ticket, wait for a bus, be told when I'm allowed to go to the loo or tramp from hostel to hostel looking for one with a spare bed. I am quite reluctant to give it all up and catch a bus into Christchurch - stopping for other people to get on and off, waiting for them to sit down. But before all that we have to clean the van
It is very weird to be packing up my rucksack again. Over the course of a month my things have managed to spread themselves all over the van. Having sent so much stuff home in Bangkok I am able to opt for the 'shove it all in, in any order' method and get on with cleaning the van. Although it wasn't particularly clean when we picked it up I'm sure that won't stop the company from charging the $200 for a professional clean if its not immaculate. So we spend an hour at our final campsite sweeping, wiping and scrubbing. Packing away bedding and cutlery, emptying the waste water tank and filling up the fresh water tank. An hours drive to Christchurch (through fairly charmless Ashburton), half an hours nervous wait whilst they check everything over, and we are van-less.
We catch a bus into the centre of Christchurch and immediately catch another one out. There are three days before our flight to Chile and I would like to see some whales in Kaikoura, a coastal town in the north of the south island. The next morning our whale watching trip is cancelled due to 'bad weather', although it is sunny and dry and the sea is flat, or at least what I can see of it. We wait around for the next trip, which is also cancelled, as is the one after that. Alex and I now have to decide whether we want to stay in Kaikoura for another night and try again tomorrow, or leave this evening and have a full day in Christchurch tomorrow. We decide to see if we can make the final bus to Christchurch, which is leaving in just five minutes from the centre of town, and if not we will have to stay another night anyway. Three hours later we arrive in Christchurch. Hopefully I will get to see whales somewhere in South America.
As a result of the huge earthquake in 2010 much of the centre of Christchurch is a building site. Every ten buildings or so there is just an empty plot, given up to weeds and wildlife. We spend a day looking around 'RE: Start Christchurch' a shopping complex made up of freight containers painted in primary colours. Most of the units are home to cafes and boutiques, the chain shops having moved to new buildings in the suburbs. Christchurch also has a huge park, divided by a river on which people canoe and row. The park is one of the best I've seen and it is the height of spring so it is filled with blossom. New Zealanders are incredibly active and the park is filled with joggers, dog walkers, cyclists, walkers, roller skaters, skate boarders, rowers. Luckily the park is so big it is easy to find a quiet spot in the sun, away from the path, where I can research South America and learn some Spanish.
I was very prepared for India, my first stop, and felt that I knew a bit about south east Asia, having lots of friends who have travelled there. I was also fairly confident about New Zealand, as they speak English , but I have absolutely no idea what to expect with South America, or even where I want to go (other than Machu Picchu). I don't know how much English people speak, what the food will be like, if the water is safe to drink, how reliable the buses are, how cheap or expensive things are. After getting so used to Asian culture and the familiarity of New Zealand, the next two months feel like a real adventure.
It is very weird to be packing up my rucksack again. Over the course of a month my things have managed to spread themselves all over the van. Having sent so much stuff home in Bangkok I am able to opt for the 'shove it all in, in any order' method and get on with cleaning the van. Although it wasn't particularly clean when we picked it up I'm sure that won't stop the company from charging the $200 for a professional clean if its not immaculate. So we spend an hour at our final campsite sweeping, wiping and scrubbing. Packing away bedding and cutlery, emptying the waste water tank and filling up the fresh water tank. An hours drive to Christchurch (through fairly charmless Ashburton), half an hours nervous wait whilst they check everything over, and we are van-less.
We catch a bus into the centre of Christchurch and immediately catch another one out. There are three days before our flight to Chile and I would like to see some whales in Kaikoura, a coastal town in the north of the south island. The next morning our whale watching trip is cancelled due to 'bad weather', although it is sunny and dry and the sea is flat, or at least what I can see of it. We wait around for the next trip, which is also cancelled, as is the one after that. Alex and I now have to decide whether we want to stay in Kaikoura for another night and try again tomorrow, or leave this evening and have a full day in Christchurch tomorrow. We decide to see if we can make the final bus to Christchurch, which is leaving in just five minutes from the centre of town, and if not we will have to stay another night anyway. Three hours later we arrive in Christchurch. Hopefully I will get to see whales somewhere in South America.
As a result of the huge earthquake in 2010 much of the centre of Christchurch is a building site. Every ten buildings or so there is just an empty plot, given up to weeds and wildlife. We spend a day looking around 'RE: Start Christchurch' a shopping complex made up of freight containers painted in primary colours. Most of the units are home to cafes and boutiques, the chain shops having moved to new buildings in the suburbs. Christchurch also has a huge park, divided by a river on which people canoe and row. The park is one of the best I've seen and it is the height of spring so it is filled with blossom. New Zealanders are incredibly active and the park is filled with joggers, dog walkers, cyclists, walkers, roller skaters, skate boarders, rowers. Luckily the park is so big it is easy to find a quiet spot in the sun, away from the path, where I can research South America and learn some Spanish.
I was very prepared for India, my first stop, and felt that I knew a bit about south east Asia, having lots of friends who have travelled there. I was also fairly confident about New Zealand, as they speak English , but I have absolutely no idea what to expect with South America, or even where I want to go (other than Machu Picchu). I don't know how much English people speak, what the food will be like, if the water is safe to drink, how reliable the buses are, how cheap or expensive things are. After getting so used to Asian culture and the familiarity of New Zealand, the next two months feel like a real adventure.
No comments:
Post a Comment