Mt Cook to Christchurch

On Friday 18th May I left Mount Cook Village to go to Christchurch along with Natasha and Dan. We met the Kiwi bus at Twizel and on the way to Christchurch we stopped off at Lake Tekapo for a fish and chips lunch - I love the fish over here!! There is a lovely little church on the lakefront which we also stopped off at. It is called the Church of the Good Shepherd and is one of the most photographed churches in NZ apparently! In Christchurch I was meeting up with Stephanie who I met in Kaikoura and then again in Queenstown. As I walked into our hostel room, here was Stacey - a Canadian I met in Cairns back at the beginning of March!! - in the same room as Stef and me! Such a small travellers world lol.

In the evening we went tot he pub with two of Stef's friends, Joe and Mike, to Duz de Lux. The Dukes, a NZ band were playing here and apparently they won a NZ MTV award the week before. It was a fun night. Amy and Craig also came and met us in the pub.On the Saturday I met up with Matt, a friend of Amy's (an English girl I met travelling up the east coast of OZ). Matt lives in Christchurch and showed me around the markets. We then met up with Dan and Natasha and Matt took us for a lovely drive to see parts of the Banks Peninsula. We got great views from this drive: Lyttleton Harbour: At the end of the road we parked the car and walked down to Godley Heads. Down on the bottom of the hill on the coast there are some lovely little cottages where people come for holidays. The only way to get here is to either walk down or to take a boat. I wouldn't like to be the one moving things in or out of these cottages - would involve a lot of work! It was a great day out - thanks Matt.

In the evening Natasha, Dan and I met up with Matt and his girlfriend Mandy at Mexican Cafe. It was a lovely little restaurant/bar with great cocktails. A number of Matt's friends came and joined us as well. After Mexican Cafe, Mandy showed us two streets which have just had lots of bars open on them. I really liked these streets as they had fairy lights above and there was also an open fire on one of the walls with soft seats round it. It was a fantastic night and the whole day with Matt changed my views of Christchurch - I like the place a lot more now! Thank you so much Matt and Mandy.