Christchurch

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I'd made the decision to spend only an afternoon in Christchurch, as there were loads of better activities I could be doing in Queenstown. I was pretty sad to be leaving NZ, as I had had a great time there, met some cool people, and seen some great scenery and done some mental activities (the first time I'd tried kayakking, white water rafting, bungie, canyon swings, sky dives, glacier hikes, helicopter flights, the list goes on!).

After a bit of a cock-up on the pickup point front by Kiwi Experience (we were only picked up because I flagged the driver down as he drove past!), we were off in a little minibus to Christchurch. Everyone on the bus was pretty knackered, and there were hardly any people left by now, so the whole day was quite subdued.

Last day in New Zealand !

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In between everyone dozing off in the bus, we visited the smallest church in NZ, which apparently has a waiting list of 4 years to get hitched. We also stopped off at Lake Tekapo, which was really nice.

After we got to Christchurch, I went for a wander to get a feel for the place. It was set up by the Anglican church back in the day, and it was pretty obvious from walkig around that that was the case. Some picturesque churches and spires, along with a cool sculpture in the main square were the highlights.

After that i went back to the hostel for a beer, and saw a guy doing some circus routines. He did some diablo tricks (which were really cool), and then tried to balance a pint glass on a pool cue, on his chin (and failed, nearly dropping the glass on myself and Tyrone !). This was followed up by putting a burning tampon down his trousers (bizarre) and he managed to set his shirt on fire. It was good fun though watching him mess up. An Australian girl called Katie volunteered to let him juggle three machetes (not sure how sharp they were) over her, she must have been a right mentalist.

Anyway, after all that I was a bit sick of the youth hostelling small-talk, and headed back off to bed, as I had to get up at 4AM the next morning to catch my flight. Ritchie had a similar flight to me, so we shared the shuttle bus, and flew off to Australia ...