New Zealand Day 1: The Start at Christchurch

Day 1 – Monday, 16th November 2009

The night before, Ethan told me on MSN that he’d send me off and the spat of melancholy that swelled up at the thought of not being able to see him or Desmond again dissipated a little, and I felt a little better. I had wanted at the very least to see him again for the last time (as I did with Desmond, even though we’re meeting again in Brunei in over a month’s time from the time of writing this), and so when I awoke at 5am, I gave him a ring and he was soon at my doorsteps.

I also spotted a square, orange Post-it note stuck to the front of my door by my Singaporean housemate Jess, with the following words in verbatim:

“Hey Clement, Have a safe trip. Nice meeting you. Keep in contact. Gd luck for ur studies! Jessica.”

My bags were ready and packed, and I scanned through a thoroughly wrinkled paper containing the list of things that I should bring. And once satisfied, I left with my 10kg backpack and a smaller daypack containing my camera and my two lenses, as well as two books, finished my bottle of juice, and walked out into Walsh St, where both Ethan and I went towards the direction of the Southern Cross Station.

Burger King became our bastion for breakfast—we sat there, ate, chatted about business and a few other things I can no longer remember of what. And even if Ethan does ramble on at times, it’s a trait I’m beginning to miss. Right before I board the SkyBus, he told me that we’d prolly not see each other again, and the reality of it all kicked me and I was saddened.

I spent the 20-minute bus ride to the Melbourne Tullamarine airport terminal texting him and Desmond—I thanked Ethan for everything, and he replied in verbatim, “Hehe yeah i.ve never had a yonger bro, gues it was as close as it gets, hav fun n xperiance life mo man, wil sure 2 keep in touch”.

The journey to the airport was surprisingly quick, even though they had already advertised it as a 20-minute ride (a cynical, disbelieving trait I carried over from Malaysia—when things don’t happen on time and as advertised—was what that caused me to disbelieve it subconsciously). Dad rang me when I was at the terminal, and I was sleeping intermittently having only 2 hours of sleep before.

When I finally took off on the Pacific Blue aircraft, I slept like a log despite having the window seat, with two Kiwi girls sitting on my row. This particular flight was rather fun too in the form of hilarious airline announcements with small funny twists. Michelle, one of the crew members who made the announcements, was rattling off the pilot’s name, then paused awkwardly as she realised that she had gave the wrong name, and then said, “Oh dear, I hope he didn’t hear that” hahaha.

When we arrived at the Christchurch Airport and were about to disembark, she said, “Please remember to take all of your personal belongings. Any lost items can be subsequently found at www.trademe.co.nz” lol.

Flying over New Zealand allowed me to feast on the beautiful sight of the rugged terrain and snow-tipped mountains—it was absolutely breathtaking. The extremely blue river and sandy delta looked almost like Play-doh’s from thousands of feet high in the sky, almost as if some higher beings have crafted this piece of paradise with their own hands.

Getting past New Zealand customs was slow, but it was definitely way faster than Australian customs. After getting past a passport check, I felt I was singled out by a female officer—being one of the only few Asians there—for some questioning: where I plan to stay tonight (Kiwi Basecamp), how I’m going to travel around (NakedBus), etc.

I was picked up from the airport after using the free phone to ring Kiwi Basecamp, and the driver arrived in about 15 minutes time. At one point I left the place I had waited, as I was waiting for some time and was unsure if I was waiting at the right place and which vehicle to look out for, and rang them up again, and the guy on the other end, whom I now recognise as Marcus, one of the owners, told me that the driver should be there anytime now. And indeed he was.

After checking into unit 9, there were 2 Singaporean girls there who just arrived that morning—apparently they have been sleeping all morning. Wasting no time, I asked the driver for the directions of the nearest Vodafone shop and he directed me to the nearby Shell station, but I went there, and the dude told me I should just go to a mall instead as they don’t sell the SIM cards. I had wanted one as H, a CouchSurfer I made a deal with on the Internet, wanted to meet me that day.

I then decided to use the provided free bike and helmet, and armed with a map, cycled towards the city with barely a clue as to where I should go. I wasn’t even sure of cycling in the first place since I wasn’t sure of the road rules, but eventually intuition called me to use the pedestrian crossing to cross the road with my bike.

Finally at the centre of Christchurch that is the ChristChurch Cathedral area, I asked two police officers for directions to a Vodafone store and the male officer pointed me to the right direction. On asking what are the road rules I should be aware of, the female officer replied, “Umm.. stop when it’s red?” wtf. Thanks officer, I certainly didn’t know that… But apparently, I can’t cycle against traffic, which is quite a common occurrence in South-East Asia.

I parked my bike against this building which has Starbucks, as I saw a few other bikes parked in the same manner.

The ChristChurch Cathedral. It actually only just crossed my mind that this picture is slightly marred by some facelift being done on the building. :/

Another look.

The rather quiet “City of Gardens”. It didn’t actually feel like a city at all.

At the intersection where people can actually cross diagonally—legal or not, I didn’t know, but I did it too anyway.

I got my Vodafone SIM card for NZD$30, and when I handed over my brown paper of NZD$50, the lady automatically assumed I wanted a $20 reload and gave me 5 cents change WTF. -____-

My dinner at 6pm.

The plaque on the floor says, “In recognition of all the men and women who have assisted New Zealand’s Antarctic Programme during the 50 years 1957-2007.”

The only few streets with a tram track.

And the tram, which is not free and quite expensive compared to Melbourne.

I felt a sense of freedom hanging out on my own, but depression soon set in and I was left moping on my own.

(Random interesting fact: the large gold coin in Australia equals $1 and the smaller gold coin equals $2, while in NZ it’s the reverse.)

I was supposed to meet up with H, an elderly Finnish guy at The Arts Centre, but we ended up meeting at a nearby carpark.

On remembering Matt’s message to ask me to take a photo of my mug, here’s a very inadequate one.

My trusty bike, which was actually rather shabby and hard to cycle as the chain kept bouncing against the pedals.

A fancy effect inside the courtyard of The Arts Centre, of a house hanging in the sky.

This picture was snapped at 7.05pm, believe it or not. It only gets dark at about 9pm+.

After texting a bit with H, we finally met at the nearby carpark near the famous Dux De Lux restaurant, where I found him sitting near his campervan. The first thing he actually asked me to do, after telling me, “Oh, you do know that I’m a paraplegic, right?” was to throw his rubbish away in the nearby garbage bin. Fair enough, I did just that, then hopped into his campervan and found it entirely fascinating that he managed to fit in a sofa-bed and a very small kitchen of sorts complete with sink and a gas stove into his Toyata Hiace. We talked about his website that I was working on for him, the publication he was working on, and about my trip with him from Te Anau onwards that coming Friday.

He even talked about letting me drive his campervan, and I was partially apprehensive but mildly excited at the thought. Furthering this, he told me that we’d be sleeping in hammocks too, which had me excited even further.

I learned then that he’d be heading to Wellington on the 28th November (my flight’s on the 1st December), and that he’s wheat intolerant, a fact I learned when he asked what can I eat, and I told him “anything but milk”—to which he said we can eat wheat-free pancakes together lol. He also said that he’d be cooking while I can do the dishes, and I cheerily said, “No problem!”, unbeknown to me the horrors that lie ahead..

H told me sternly that he absolutely hates people asking if he needs help, and if he was sure that he didn’t need their help, or of people opening the doors for him even though he was still capable of doing that. He said that he’d ask for help when he needs it (such as when I threw his rubbish for him wtf), and also told me that when his legs are in pain, he may be grumpy and would warn me when that happens wtf.

Interesting character, I thought, and so after our one-hour meet up, I cycled back in the dipping temperature (shivered a little) to the comfort of my 4-person dorm (although even when the heater was turned on, it wasn’t very warm), where I slept on the top bunk above a Japanese dude for the night.

It also struck me then that in New Zealand, it’s GMT +13 in the summer, so my flight from Melbourne to Christchurch was merely only about 3 hours rather than the 5 hours that I had expected.

Expenses:

Vodafone prepay SIM and $20 recharge – NZD$49.95
Remainder of payment for Kiwi Basecamp for two nights – NZD$46.80 (paid the deposit via credit card when I booked it online via hostelworld.com, with the total cost of NZD$52. If any of you choose to stay here in the future, you can just go to the hostel’s website and book it directly to avoid the booking fee of $2 charged.)
Burger King (dinner) – NZD$6

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Didn’t expect this entry to be this long, but more to come soon!