After seeing and saying goodbye to a few friends I made on the trip I flew from Sydney to Christchurch. I've been waiting a few weeks to tell this story. When I was planning my trip, it was about the same time as the earthquake...while the earthquake has destroyed some of the most touristic landmarks in Christchurch, that's where I was starting my tour. I had no idea until I arrived the devastation the earthquake has done to the town. Every other building was destroyed...the entire city center was blockcaded and each building was being searched and deemed habitable or inhabitable by the military. After arriving at my hostel outside of town, I thought I would do my typical tourist thing and take a walk around the city...see what there was going on and then find a nice place to eat.
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| A local church, not the famous one though, it was in the city center and wasn't accessible to anyone. |
But even this was a hard task in Christchurch, it seemed like a ghost town. I walked around for a little while and saw so many abandoned buildings, one after the other. I couldn't even find a cafe to get a coffee.After wandering around and seeing only lonely backpackers who didn't plan ahead and book a hostel and were no left with no place to stay, I happened upon a little cafe...that looked a little shabby to say the least. The retro style cafe with old furniture barely had an attached door. I asked kindly for the nearest place to get a proper meal and was given directions to a local pub called Pomelroy's. Local beer and cider was on tap and they all your pub food favorites like fish n chips, steam mussels(my personal favorite), burger and cheese plates for the carnivores.
There were quite a few people in this pub and I thought...so this is where everyone is at in town. I met a few older local gentlemen who were telling me about what has happened in town since the earthquake. Alot of the local inhabitants moved out of town and it seemed there was a depression that was working its way into the spirit of the people in town. One of the guys started telling me how he was a builder in town, and I said "well that's great for someone in your profession" He said..."well my home was destroyed too and normally you don't expect to bring your work home with you" He said the earthquakes had forced the locals to get out of their neighborhood and mingle a little more...but it was clear that without alot going on in town, most people were spending their time in the pub.
The next day i was traveling to meet the Stray Bus, which was a nice way to get around New Zealand and you didn't have to drive, this was great for me. So the next day, I rolled out of bed and found the bus that took me over Arthur's pass to a little town in the middle of nowhere called Greymouth which was tiny...you could blink and miss this town. It was Easter weekend and I waited for the Stray Bus to come....and waited...and waited...."Do you see where I'm going with this?"
So...my bus had been rebooked for the next day...and there was no bus coming for me until Easter Monday. Well it didn't turn out to be that bad. Although I was really excited to start my adventure I had to wait one more day. That's like turning up for your spin class and finding out your instructor is sick..:) But after I found the Neptune's hostel and heard the words..."Free Internet" I was a happy girl...:) I met some of the people staying at the hostel...and they had a huge DVD collection so we watched a couple Kiwi movies...like "Heavenly Creatures" which was Peter Jackson's first movie about two girls from New Zealand. Kate Winslett is in the movie....It was a little creepy to say the least. We also watched "Boy" which was about a little Moari kid...who loved Michael Jackson...It was hilarious!
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