It takes quite a while to get through just under a week's worth of entries
I have to say, I liked Christchurch. Despite the bad start because my mother is hopeless with maps and the Internet in the apartment building cost a fortune (and thus I did not get online for a week). Sadly, my overwhelming impression of Christchurch was that it was flat. Coming from Wellington, someone should get where I'm coming from. It also felt very English, which is ridiculous because I've never been to England. Something about the River Avon running through the river and the streets all named Gloucester and that sort of thing and Oxford and Belfast a while away.
So it was a bit like Rotorua, in its flatness, and how all the roads were in a nice grid, but then Rotorua's town square is by the lake, and Christchurch doesn't have a lake, and the town square is more of a diamond which breaks up the grid of the city center. Then it was a bit like Wellington in that there were random sculpture things on street corners and trees lining the streets, but then the trees were bare and not fenced in, and it wasn't windy. (More on this later.) I suppose it was a bit like Napier in that lots of the buildings were nice and old, but then it seemed like the sort of city that had never been touched by natural disasters and never would be. (This is silly, as Banks Peninsula was formed by volcanic eruptions.) In conclusion, it was just Christchurch.
It being our first time there, we did most of the typical tourist stuff. We had a bit of a wander by the River Avon and the Bridge of Remembrance, which is very pretty. I apparently only like scenery if it's in the city. :P Cathedral Square was nice, too, though I still think that the sculpture, Chalice, looks more like a shuttlecock. The first time we went to the Square, we happened to be there on a weekend so there was a marketplace open by Starbucks. A few stalls of food, handcrafts, and cheap Asian imports. I was pretty sad I couldn't buy anything, as I saw some pretty dresses and skirts. :)
We had a look at the Southern Encounter Aquarium and Kiwi Encounter. I feel I spent too much time trying to record the experience rather than actually experiencing it. Anyone else do this? Most of my photos were pretty lame anyway. I was far too amused by the rainbow trout on display there. Hello, we have those EVERYWHERE in the North Island. XD And then we went in for a look at the kiwi, where I managed to get completely confused and mixed up our reflections in the glass for the kiwi. Whoops. I did catch sight of it in the end, though, but I must conclude that it's a lot easier to spot a kiwi at Wellington Zoo.
One of the must-dos was the International Antarctic Center, or, as I took to shortening it to, Antarctica. Very educational and entertaining, not that I can remember most of the educational parts of course (also because we totally paid no attention to the commentary on the speakers). The fairy penguins were cute! Yes, I realize those are the ones that wander around the harbor occasionally, but there aren't as many in one place. :) And these were all the reject retard disabled penguins that wouldn't make it out in the wild. Thanks, Marineland Napier. (How the hell do they get the penguins from Napier to Christchurch?)
Possibly the most fun part was a room where they simulate Antarctica and an Antarctic storm. We went in there with jackets on (well, I was just in my normal Christchurch gear because Christchurch is fucking freezing) to a negative 8 degree temperature and fake snow (ice stuff) on the ground. Within a few minutes they turned on fans and brought the "wind" speed to about 43km/h. Other people were starting to huddle or look for shelter (there was an igloo-ish thing and a tent that was sadly closed) by 20km/h, at 43km/h I was completely relaxed and telling everyone in earshot, "Eh, feels just like home." Thanks, Wellington! (Unfortunately, once I upload the photos, you will see that I seem to have adopted the whole Paris Hilton lazy eye thing. Oh dear.)
Due to crap weather we had to wait a few days to go up to Mount Hutt. Dad and Raeann went sledding on the new toboggan, we caught up with Ninang Gracie and Andre and stuff (my godmum and her family who live in Melbourne), and Ninang Gracie attempted skiing, but alas, the mountain was completely wasted on me. Let's face it: I have no appreciation for scenery outside of a city, I'm not a fan of heights (looking down on all that flatness. urgh) or snow (driving out to the middle of nowhere to see a bunch of cold white stuff? no thanks), and I don't ski or anything. Tragically my self-confidence apparently plummets to negative eighteen within a km of my family, so my brilliant plans to go use my mad (nonexistent) skillz at snowboarding (I fall down every half a meter) to hook some hot snowboarding guy went unrealized. Instead I spent the afternoon playing Pokemon Sapphire (I did this for much of the roadtrips) and reading The Handmaid's Tale for English (the only schoolwork I've done all holidays, which is terrible because I have a ginormous music essay due next Friday). Alas, my supposed hotness is foiled by my extreme nerdiness.
The next day was not so much of a waste, as we went just outside Christchurch to Orana Wildlife Park, which markets itself as a freerange zoo but the only difference I could see was the lack of chain link fence around most of the animals. (The lions still had them, but, for example, the cheetahs and the rhinos did not. Of course, there was also a bit of a stream going around the park that helped with the "no proper fences" thing.) While I'd like to think some displays are handled a lot better by Wellington Zoo (the otters, for example. they're splashing all over the place at Wellington, and what were the ones at Orana doing? trying their best to get inside), it was fun watching all the small children at the feeding times.
We made it to most of the feedings, actually; all of the farmyard stuff, the lions, the giraffes, the spider monkeys, the rhinos, the cheetahs. The cheetahs were sort of impressive in that they made them do a run for their food (well, they actually chased a bit of string and they got fed afterwards), but then only one of them actually ran for it and the other three just trailed along behind and let the girl do all the work. Go figure. I would have to say my favorite animal there was a rabbit (at a zoo. I know) I named Lumpy (affectionately!) because she tended to sit in one place shivering and looked like a lump. Her real name was Lamosey or something (don't know how to spell it), so I wasn't too far off.
The gondola, like the mountain, was a bit of a waste, though for once it wasn't just me complaining about its pointlessness because we spent that day with Ninang Gracie's family and Andre complained with me. Again with my dislike of scenery, and to add salt to the wound, once we got up the damn mountain it was foggy. We had some photos outside on the viewing decks even though I mentioned you could get the same photos outside our house on a foggy day. No lie. But the tourist shop there was fricking awesome, and I foolishly allowed Ninang Gracie to buy me my ball!purse before I had my dress because they had truly awesome purses there for only twenty dollars. (Yes, despite taking the same five-odd bags everywhere, I am a bit of a handbag whore.) Despite Dad's shudders every time he sees it, I am a big fan of my purse! It's so me. XD
The tram was not so pointless, as it was back in the city, though it was a bit disheartening going past cool stuff that I kinda wanted to go to but we never did. Sights included the Christchurch Arts Center, the Court (? my photo's blurry) Theatre, the Press (a Christchurch newspaper) building (with Latin over the doorway!! nihil utile quod non honestum. not having my dictionary around, I can't actually translate that), and that park where Peter Jackson et all filmed part of Heavenly Creatures. I want to see that film, on a random note.
In the afternoon we bummed around and went on a last minute (well, not so last minute considering Christchurch shops all seem to close around six) blitz for a ball dress. I ended up buying the one I'd tried on at Principals the Saturday before that. XD I really didn't want to buy the second dress I saw (...actually the only dress my parents approved of) but I couldn't find anything else and this dress is as awesome as the purse, but in a different way. Photos in another post because I am cruel and not letting Chris see it ;) also because it's midnight, but I will say that it's a sparkly black halterneck.
Had dinner at the Lobster Club that evening, which as Andre said was posh. (He likes using this word and attempted to use it on my black shiny but very much falling apart handbag, but in this case I have to agree with him.) Good Akaroa salmon (Akaroa is a strongly French-influenced bayside town outside of Christchurch), but alas (I am a big fan of this word) I could not stomach the linguine, as someone apparently looked at the linguine and said, "Hey, I know what, let's dye it black with squid ink!" and though it did not taste of squid (I hate squid), it was still black, which I associate with food so burnt I'll probably have to eat it anyway for lack of other food in the house I can cook. (In the morning, I shall find you a photo of a slice of pizza I once burned this badly so you can see what I mean.) However, the key lime tart was excellent and I am glad I turned down the amusement factor of having Kapiti icecream in Christchurch to eat that instead.
Andre and things came along to our apartment afterwards to see the place and admire Raeann's Mantyke on her phone (there are little phone dangler vending machines all over Christchurch and the ferry, I managed to get a Pikachu one and now my phone looks awesome, by which I mean probably three times as childish as it did before what with the $2 Shop lanyard) and my ball dress. Ninang Gracie too is a big fan of my dress, but then she might just have been enjoying having a teenage girl around for a change instead of a preteenage boy.
Our last full day in Christchurch was fairly pointless seeing as I'd already bought the dress. So we went apathetically looking for shoes. I say apathetically because I went with Mom, who A) is not paying for them (she buys the dress, Dad buys the shoes apparently), and B) disagrees with me over shoes. (Pretty much Mom says get proper shoes aka heels and I say what's the point, I'd apparently only wear them for the photos if at all, can't I get a nice pair of boots instead or just hire.) We finally went into Spratz, the dancing shop a block away from the apartment building, and Mom half-suggested I wear ballroom shoes to the ball. ER NO. Unfortunately this meant that I did not get any ballroom shoes, which is a shame as they were half-price and around $70-80. Not that we do much ballroom at the Studio anyway, we seem to do more Latin. I bought Raeann a bracelet and then later on I bought gold treble clef earrings on a total whim. I realize this was near pointless as I hardly ever wear gold and my haircut makes earrings invisible, but they're cool okay.
Dinner with Andre's family again, this time at a Japanese and Korean restauraunt. The interesting thing about this trip is that while Christchurch is said to be more English than England (thanks for that fact, Johanna), we ate at far more Asian restaurants there, and thus I finally figured out how to use chopsticks. It so figures that I only work out something intrinsically Asian in the most English city outside of England.
And so we came back on the ferry today. Rough sailing, people were throwing up all over the place, and we got blown way off course out past the Karori Rip. (I know this only from eavesdropping on the staff.) Apparently my stomach copes better with waves like this when I am standing up and/or walking, so I spent much of the voyage wandering aimlessly from deck to deck, and at one stage waltzing by the food court. Good thing no one was around to stare. Especially as I forgot the steps past Bronze. Later on I hung out by the cafe and stood there reading Wheel of Time, impressing one of the staff in their conversations on passenger sickness: "I'm actually impressed, she's managing to stand there reading a book." And thus my stomach is saved by WoT! Oh damn, I bet no one from Tar Valon is taking the time to read this anyway.
I was too lazy to bring my music essay crap down to Christchurch with me, so this left me with a lot of free time, in which I instead ignored Pokemon Yellow for Pokemon Sapphire (eight badges in five days, baby! and most of my party Pokemon have Contest ribbons too), read The Handmaid's Tale (astonishingly for once in my life I did not finish all the books I had brought with me, probably due to the aforementioned Pokemon), finally finished a Muse sketch (if badly - the crappy photo shall come), also finish a Muse fic (in which I take total liberties with other people's characters and the band name, sorry Jess and Vinny), and formatted way too many really old fics for posting in spiralunbound. Oh, and Toni? I have begun to write you pr0n as my NaNo is nowhere near finished. It seems to be turning into a PWP.
So it was a bit like Rotorua, in its flatness, and how all the roads were in a nice grid, but then Rotorua's town square is by the lake, and Christchurch doesn't have a lake, and the town square is more of a diamond which breaks up the grid of the city center. Then it was a bit like Wellington in that there were random sculpture things on street corners and trees lining the streets, but then the trees were bare and not fenced in, and it wasn't windy. (More on this later.) I suppose it was a bit like Napier in that lots of the buildings were nice and old, but then it seemed like the sort of city that had never been touched by natural disasters and never would be. (This is silly, as Banks Peninsula was formed by volcanic eruptions.) In conclusion, it was just Christchurch.
It being our first time there, we did most of the typical tourist stuff. We had a bit of a wander by the River Avon and the Bridge of Remembrance, which is very pretty. I apparently only like scenery if it's in the city. :P Cathedral Square was nice, too, though I still think that the sculpture, Chalice, looks more like a shuttlecock. The first time we went to the Square, we happened to be there on a weekend so there was a marketplace open by Starbucks. A few stalls of food, handcrafts, and cheap Asian imports. I was pretty sad I couldn't buy anything, as I saw some pretty dresses and skirts. :)
We had a look at the Southern Encounter Aquarium and Kiwi Encounter. I feel I spent too much time trying to record the experience rather than actually experiencing it. Anyone else do this? Most of my photos were pretty lame anyway. I was far too amused by the rainbow trout on display there. Hello, we have those EVERYWHERE in the North Island. XD And then we went in for a look at the kiwi, where I managed to get completely confused and mixed up our reflections in the glass for the kiwi. Whoops. I did catch sight of it in the end, though, but I must conclude that it's a lot easier to spot a kiwi at Wellington Zoo.
One of the must-dos was the International Antarctic Center, or, as I took to shortening it to, Antarctica. Very educational and entertaining, not that I can remember most of the educational parts of course (also because we totally paid no attention to the commentary on the speakers). The fairy penguins were cute! Yes, I realize those are the ones that wander around the harbor occasionally, but there aren't as many in one place. :) And these were all the reject retard disabled penguins that wouldn't make it out in the wild. Thanks, Marineland Napier. (How the hell do they get the penguins from Napier to Christchurch?)
Possibly the most fun part was a room where they simulate Antarctica and an Antarctic storm. We went in there with jackets on (well, I was just in my normal Christchurch gear because Christchurch is fucking freezing) to a negative 8 degree temperature and fake snow (ice stuff) on the ground. Within a few minutes they turned on fans and brought the "wind" speed to about 43km/h. Other people were starting to huddle or look for shelter (there was an igloo-ish thing and a tent that was sadly closed) by 20km/h, at 43km/h I was completely relaxed and telling everyone in earshot, "Eh, feels just like home." Thanks, Wellington! (Unfortunately, once I upload the photos, you will see that I seem to have adopted the whole Paris Hilton lazy eye thing. Oh dear.)
Due to crap weather we had to wait a few days to go up to Mount Hutt. Dad and Raeann went sledding on the new toboggan, we caught up with Ninang Gracie and Andre and stuff (my godmum and her family who live in Melbourne), and Ninang Gracie attempted skiing, but alas, the mountain was completely wasted on me. Let's face it: I have no appreciation for scenery outside of a city, I'm not a fan of heights (looking down on all that flatness. urgh) or snow (driving out to the middle of nowhere to see a bunch of cold white stuff? no thanks), and I don't ski or anything. Tragically my self-confidence apparently plummets to negative eighteen within a km of my family, so my brilliant plans to go use my mad (nonexistent) skillz at snowboarding (I fall down every half a meter) to hook some hot snowboarding guy went unrealized. Instead I spent the afternoon playing Pokemon Sapphire (I did this for much of the roadtrips) and reading The Handmaid's Tale for English (the only schoolwork I've done all holidays, which is terrible because I have a ginormous music essay due next Friday). Alas, my supposed hotness is foiled by my extreme nerdiness.
The next day was not so much of a waste, as we went just outside Christchurch to Orana Wildlife Park, which markets itself as a freerange zoo but the only difference I could see was the lack of chain link fence around most of the animals. (The lions still had them, but, for example, the cheetahs and the rhinos did not. Of course, there was also a bit of a stream going around the park that helped with the "no proper fences" thing.) While I'd like to think some displays are handled a lot better by Wellington Zoo (the otters, for example. they're splashing all over the place at Wellington, and what were the ones at Orana doing? trying their best to get inside), it was fun watching all the small children at the feeding times.
We made it to most of the feedings, actually; all of the farmyard stuff, the lions, the giraffes, the spider monkeys, the rhinos, the cheetahs. The cheetahs were sort of impressive in that they made them do a run for their food (well, they actually chased a bit of string and they got fed afterwards), but then only one of them actually ran for it and the other three just trailed along behind and let the girl do all the work. Go figure. I would have to say my favorite animal there was a rabbit (at a zoo. I know) I named Lumpy (affectionately!) because she tended to sit in one place shivering and looked like a lump. Her real name was Lamosey or something (don't know how to spell it), so I wasn't too far off.
The gondola, like the mountain, was a bit of a waste, though for once it wasn't just me complaining about its pointlessness because we spent that day with Ninang Gracie's family and Andre complained with me. Again with my dislike of scenery, and to add salt to the wound, once we got up the damn mountain it was foggy. We had some photos outside on the viewing decks even though I mentioned you could get the same photos outside our house on a foggy day. No lie. But the tourist shop there was fricking awesome, and I foolishly allowed Ninang Gracie to buy me my ball!purse before I had my dress because they had truly awesome purses there for only twenty dollars. (Yes, despite taking the same five-odd bags everywhere, I am a bit of a handbag whore.) Despite Dad's shudders every time he sees it, I am a big fan of my purse! It's so me. XD
The tram was not so pointless, as it was back in the city, though it was a bit disheartening going past cool stuff that I kinda wanted to go to but we never did. Sights included the Christchurch Arts Center, the Court (? my photo's blurry) Theatre, the Press (a Christchurch newspaper) building (with Latin over the doorway!! nihil utile quod non honestum. not having my dictionary around, I can't actually translate that), and that park where Peter Jackson et all filmed part of Heavenly Creatures. I want to see that film, on a random note.
In the afternoon we bummed around and went on a last minute (well, not so last minute considering Christchurch shops all seem to close around six) blitz for a ball dress. I ended up buying the one I'd tried on at Principals the Saturday before that. XD I really didn't want to buy the second dress I saw (...actually the only dress my parents approved of) but I couldn't find anything else and this dress is as awesome as the purse, but in a different way. Photos in another post because I am cruel and not letting Chris see it ;) also because it's midnight, but I will say that it's a sparkly black halterneck.
Had dinner at the Lobster Club that evening, which as Andre said was posh. (He likes using this word and attempted to use it on my black shiny but very much falling apart handbag, but in this case I have to agree with him.) Good Akaroa salmon (Akaroa is a strongly French-influenced bayside town outside of Christchurch), but alas (I am a big fan of this word) I could not stomach the linguine, as someone apparently looked at the linguine and said, "Hey, I know what, let's dye it black with squid ink!" and though it did not taste of squid (I hate squid), it was still black, which I associate with food so burnt I'll probably have to eat it anyway for lack of other food in the house I can cook. (In the morning, I shall find you a photo of a slice of pizza I once burned this badly so you can see what I mean.) However, the key lime tart was excellent and I am glad I turned down the amusement factor of having Kapiti icecream in Christchurch to eat that instead.
Andre and things came along to our apartment afterwards to see the place and admire Raeann's Mantyke on her phone (there are little phone dangler vending machines all over Christchurch and the ferry, I managed to get a Pikachu one and now my phone looks awesome, by which I mean probably three times as childish as it did before what with the $2 Shop lanyard) and my ball dress. Ninang Gracie too is a big fan of my dress, but then she might just have been enjoying having a teenage girl around for a change instead of a preteenage boy.
Our last full day in Christchurch was fairly pointless seeing as I'd already bought the dress. So we went apathetically looking for shoes. I say apathetically because I went with Mom, who A) is not paying for them (she buys the dress, Dad buys the shoes apparently), and B) disagrees with me over shoes. (Pretty much Mom says get proper shoes aka heels and I say what's the point, I'd apparently only wear them for the photos if at all, can't I get a nice pair of boots instead or just hire.) We finally went into Spratz, the dancing shop a block away from the apartment building, and Mom half-suggested I wear ballroom shoes to the ball. ER NO. Unfortunately this meant that I did not get any ballroom shoes, which is a shame as they were half-price and around $70-80. Not that we do much ballroom at the Studio anyway, we seem to do more Latin. I bought Raeann a bracelet and then later on I bought gold treble clef earrings on a total whim. I realize this was near pointless as I hardly ever wear gold and my haircut makes earrings invisible, but they're cool okay.
Dinner with Andre's family again, this time at a Japanese and Korean restauraunt. The interesting thing about this trip is that while Christchurch is said to be more English than England (thanks for that fact, Johanna), we ate at far more Asian restaurants there, and thus I finally figured out how to use chopsticks. It so figures that I only work out something intrinsically Asian in the most English city outside of England.
And so we came back on the ferry today. Rough sailing, people were throwing up all over the place, and we got blown way off course out past the Karori Rip. (I know this only from eavesdropping on the staff.) Apparently my stomach copes better with waves like this when I am standing up and/or walking, so I spent much of the voyage wandering aimlessly from deck to deck, and at one stage waltzing by the food court. Good thing no one was around to stare. Especially as I forgot the steps past Bronze. Later on I hung out by the cafe and stood there reading Wheel of Time, impressing one of the staff in their conversations on passenger sickness: "I'm actually impressed, she's managing to stand there reading a book." And thus my stomach is saved by WoT! Oh damn, I bet no one from Tar Valon is taking the time to read this anyway.
I was too lazy to bring my music essay crap down to Christchurch with me, so this left me with a lot of free time, in which I instead ignored Pokemon Yellow for Pokemon Sapphire (eight badges in five days, baby! and most of my party Pokemon have Contest ribbons too), read The Handmaid's Tale (astonishingly for once in my life I did not finish all the books I had brought with me, probably due to the aforementioned Pokemon), finally finished a Muse sketch (if badly - the crappy photo shall come), also finish a Muse fic (in which I take total liberties with other people's characters and the band name, sorry Jess and Vinny), and formatted way too many really old fics for posting in spiralunbound. Oh, and Toni? I have begun to write you pr0n as my NaNo is nowhere near finished. It seems to be turning into a PWP.