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My New Zealand trip inspired 28 pages of journal and hundreds of photos. I had to select among the photos. The last shall be first on this blogsite, so to follow my progress day by day go to number 1 in the New Zealand theme.. Each text page is followed by a photo page.

Day thirteen

 

( continued)   Shouldn’t day thirteen have been yesterday?

 

‘Thai pumpkin soup’ was my breakfast at another nice café in the main street. It was an exquisite morning with a low mist like a white cashmere scarf on the mountains in the distance and I took my best photos of Queen Charlotte Sound from Picton. I was hoping fervently that the day would remain fine for the train trip.

 

Picton Harbour and hills

 

 

As I walked around I went in to the iSite, New Zealand’s term for its network of tourist information centres. They can book accommodation and many other things directly so I made arrangements to sleep at Charlie’s for another two nights. There was no chance I was going to miss the train again so I had a Sub for lunch and sat on the platform reading my book. I got up to stretch my legs and found a couple I recognized sitting along from me. They had booked the Bluebridge ferry just ahead of me. Their phone company had caused them to miss the same train as me. Unfortunately they didn’t have a roaming pass and had to pay for their new ticket.

 

As we talked one of the Soundsair staff came and told them to contact their phone company in Christchurch and claim their fare. The couple were both Australians, he with Scots ancestry he was keen to trace and she from an Ethiopian family that came to Australia via Greece. She was an infant when she arrived.

 

Another woman came and sat beside me and she is a South African of Hindu descent. We talked a little about Ghandi’s work in South Africa and she told me that some New Zealanders did not like Indians and she had experienced some racial prejudice.

 

Transcoastal arriving at Picton

 

 

The train arrived and we boarded. My ‘friend’ at the booking office said she got me the best seat and she did. I had the window seat nearest to the open carriage and only two cars from the café. I was able to go out to the open area and return at my convenience.

 

It’s really not that easy to take good photos from a speeding lurching train but I got some good ones. Some are on this blog. The weather was wonderful and I saw lots of seals basking on rocks, but bizarrely, from my distant vantage point they looked like slugs on a stone.

 

I finished the novel on the journey and gave it to my two young friends rather than carry it. (note: Buy second hand books when travelling.)

 

My bags were waiting for me in Christchurch and I was soon at Charlie B’s. Following the directions I was given I turned right at the snack machine and came to the last dorm in the corridor. Using the key I entered and found myself in a twelve bed dorm and I was the only male. There was no doona on the bed and I went to the front desk where I found I had gone to the wrong dorm! Later I worked out that I had turned right at the drinks machine instead of the snack machine. The key worked.

 

The mistake had one bonus. I met a nice English girl who had just finished journalism at Queensland Uni. We had begun to talk and agreed to find a meal together. Tess is now working in copywriting but hopes to get a newspaper job soon. We went to the Korean restaurant and talked animatedly. On our walk back to Charlie’s Tess had to ask me to walk more slowly because her feet were quite painful from all the tramping she had done. I was surprised and realised my walking speed had increased. I used to have the habit of walking very fast but my health and adjusting to the slower pace of Chinese pedestrians caused me to become a very slow walker. It must be a sign of improved fitness and health.

 

 

Day fourteen

 

Saint Patrick’s Day. Christchurch was full of shop assistants wearing green costumes and hats. Some of the costumes had a strong affiliation with Irish culture and some were just weird. Surely green antlers reveal some confusion about Rudolph’s function!

 

I breakfasted on pumpkin soup at the first café I ate at in New Zealand. The owner is a very funny fellow from Shanghai. (to be continued)

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 2nd, 2009 at 11:21 am and is filed under New Zealand, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.