In the safe sanctuary of the ChristChurch Cathedral

I found myself in the ChristChurch cathedral today after wandering about aimlessly on my own. The Gothic interior was large, imposing, and impressive, and as I entered, the pastor began a very short sermon inviting visitors of all faiths to sit and pray for our loved ones. I found myself more interested in snapping photos around—the photographer’s bug no doubt—and after a short while, nodded off. I tried to make it look as if I was closing my eyes in deep prayer, but several times my head rolled sideways on its own accord, and so I resigned myself to sleep.

I woke up feeling renewed and better, and so I set off to explore the city towards the direction of the mountains. I soon realised it was futile to get there on foot—should’ve borrowed the bicycle my hostel has, but I found it to be too restrictive for me to stop, get my camera from my bag, snap photos, store my camera again—and so I went towards the direction of the nearby park and Botanical Garden.

I didn’t eventually make it to the Botanical Garden—the sun and its intensely high UV rays were heating me up (ironic, ‘cause it was supposed to be 15C and didn’t feel like it), and I resigned once more to not go. I thought Ethan would love the place, being a flora-lover himself, but seeing that as I was alone and remarkably not in the mood to bask under the sunlight, I left and headed for the city once more. All these while there were only very few people walking around as I was in a fairly quiet area, I presume.

And soon I found myself once again in the cathedral, taking shelter from the merciless sun. I nodded off again, and after entertaining thoughts to myself, the male choir began to sing and I was impressed. Despite not understanding a word that was being said—it was either in another language or their sung words were too difficult to understand—I found myself enjoying the performance by the group which consists of a mixture of mostly kids, youths, and a few adults.

I am currently under the direct influence of my incredibly weird “trip depression”. It’s awfully reminiscent of my first few days in Melbourne, but now being not in contact with anyone familiar makes it two times worse. There’s only so much a sole traveller could do and think on his own, and I craved for some form of communication. It doesn’t help that I’m a bit shy when approaching strangers unless I absolutely must, and during those short periods of time this morning when I chatted with two Bruneians and a Taiwanese guy during breakfast, I was myself.

But not right now.

I have absolutely anticipated this depression ailing me would attack, but even if I had anticipated it, I couldn’t do anything about it to not occur.

I’m in the public library here using its free Internet service that lasts an hour. Approximately 6 minutes remain, and now I must wonder what to do next.

Tomorrow I leave for Queenstown, a picturesque town in the mountains, also known as the capital city of adventure of New Zealand. Maybe I’d feel better then. Otherwise, right now I much prefer Melbourne as a city than Christchurch—it’s too quiet and less multicultural for my tastes.