Christchurch & Lyttleton

HERE IT IS! Finally, I'm getting around to posting up the beginning of the south island trip with pics. The beginning isn't the best part so it's just a teaser for ya. I actually really enjoyed the sites and thought it was cool, but only because I didn't realize what was coming up.

April 8th-9th
We flew out on Easter Sunday from Auckland. At the airport waiting for our departure we met a group of old Korean couples on vacation. We talked to a couple of the older gents who were trying to brush up on their English; conversation was strained, but enjoyable. During our conversations the wives would come by and hand us Korean candy, and then sit back down and giggle while we ate it. We talked about a few common things to keep the conversation going but their eyes didn't light up until I mentioned Soju (Korean rice alcohol, similar to vodka perhaps). I've had soju a couple times at Korean BBQ places, and apparently these guys have had a lot of soju. They even mentioned that it was expensive in New Zealand so they brought their own big jug of it to supply them for the trip. One guy got up to go get it so we could do some shots but then realized the airport had made them check it in their luggage.

When we arrived in Christchurch, one of Jake's friend met us at the airport and gave us a ride to her place where we were staying. We drove a little bit through town but since it was Easter we couldn't get any alcohol and all the bars were closed. After failing to catch a bus we decided to make another trip into town and wait for midnight. We entered a liquor store and found about 8 guys waiting for the beer cooler to be unlocked. These guys were already hammered too, one of them was telling us how much we had to get this "Flame" beer and then started hugging on Jake and kissed his neck. It was weird. So we got this "Flame" beer, I guess they like it since it's 5.6% or something like that, strong for these parts, but it tastes like crap. We taught the horse races to a couple of the local Christchurchians (actually Americans studying there, but whatever), and they loved it.

The next day we went to the Botanical Gardens. They were very nice. We walked around the square and watched a performer and then decided to head over to Lyttleton. You take a bus out of town and go through a long tunnel in a mountain to get to Lyttleton which is a port town. We walked around the port area and small town a little and then decided to climb up the hill that the bus had driven through (as seen in pictures below). From atop the hill you had a good view of all of Christchurch and a good view of Lyttleton while climbing up the hill.

We came down the hill and had a beer with the locals and then caught our bus back into Christchurch. The next morning we went to pick up our rental car which seemed to be out in the outskirts (sketchy) part of town, but it served us well. More on this later.

Christchurch is very uncharacteristically flat for New Zealand

Both that driver and the bike rider are in for a world of pain

Christchurchchurch, why not?

Very cool statue beside the church, both on the main square in town

Quaint port town of Lyttleton. Attractions include Major Hornbrook Trail, Cemetery with a view, and the Leper Island (not pictured due to censoring)

Like the picture is titled, we climbed it 'cause it was there (and not much else was). Major Hornbrook Trail starts off to the left and zig-zags up the hill mostly coming right.