Conclusion of New Zealand

I had to drag myself away from beautiful Kaikoura, and hopped on a bus to Christchurch. This is the Christchurch Cathedral. I didn't spend a lot of time in Christchurch; it was big and busy, and while I'm sure there were plenty of things to see, I was more interested in landscapes and small towns than in cities. The people there were also less friendly than they had been in other parts of New Zealand (although they were still WAY more friendly than people in American cities). The South Island is more British than the North Island, so the people are a little less laid-back. Christchurch, a very British planned community that looks like central London (and where you can actually go punting on the river) sort of epitomizes British New Zealand. The people there were a bit uptight (compared to other New Zealanders), loved to stand in lines (seriously, I'd get to a crosswalk and the people would be waiting in a single-file line to cross the street), and didn't have time to stop and chat.

I've decided that the only thing you can do to annoy a Kiwi is to attempt to walk across a street. Pedestrians have no rights at most street intersections; they're expected to wait for all traffic to cross before attempting to cross themselves. There are a few stoplights that have crosswalks, and there are signs at these special crosswalks saying that cars that are turning need to yield to pedestrians in the crosswalk. They'll yield reluctantly at these intersections, putting the car bumper about three inches from your knee and then whizzing by as soon as it's physically possible. But the rest of the time, you have to look right, left, ahead of you, behind you (for the turning cars), look again, and then hurry across the street. Even then, it's hard to get across a street without a car wanting to use the same section of pavement you're currently using, and they REALLY don't like to stop. Most of the cities and towns I was in were fine; the drivers were laid-back and as long as I could convince them that I really was trying to hurry to get out of their way, they weren't mean. In Christchurch, they would honk, shout, wave their arms, and make rude gestures to anyone who tried to cross a street. They weren't just honking at ME; there was a constant cacophony all over the city. It just made me more eager to leave Christchurch.

So I caught a bus for Dunedin. I wanted to go to Dunedin because there was a hostel there called Hogwartz, and I really wanted to stay in Hogwartz! The bus station was right across the street from the huge Cadbury Chocolate Factory, which gave tours! The tour was so cool: there were little animatronics guys (I called them Oompah Loompahs) that showed us how candy bars were made, drove cars, poked their heads out of the wall, and gathered candy. It was straight out of Disneyland. We got to watch people (real people this time, not the Oompah Loompahs) make hollow eggs and bunnies for Easter, we saw the machine make chocolate chips, and we watched marshmallow being coated with chocolate. There was even a 100-foot chocolate fountain! I didn't get to lick wallpaper or try a Fizzy Lifting Drink, but it still totally reminded me of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (the old movie, not the new freaky Johnny Depp one).

They gave us a whole bag full of free samples, which was a bad thing. Chocolate makes me sick. I can eat a little bit of it and be fine, but eating too much gives me swollen glands, clogged sinuses, muscle aches, and sometimes (if I eat way too much) a fever and chills. And of course, when they gave me a whole bag full of free chocolate after this tour, I HAD to eat some of it. So when I woke up the next morning with a sore throat and feeling lethargic, I knew it was my own fault. I had been thinking about going to Queenstown to see the Remarkables, the mountain range that featured prominently in Lord of the Rings, but I had learned my lesson in Italy about trying to travel while sick (you never get any better). So I stayed in Dunedin and decided to take it easy that day. I had also met some cool people at the hostel, Heidi (we called her Heidi #1 and I was Heidi #2) and Ruth; it was fun to spend more time with them. I was sad that I wouldn't get to see Queenstown on this trip (I was almost out of time) but that will give me a reason to come back.

It was fun to see more of Dunedin. It's another British planned community, although not nearly as big or stressed-out as Christchurch. It's built around The Octagon, which is like a public square (although, obviously, with eight sides). It's also a city of churches--they were everywhere! I found out later that Dunedin had been built with religious freedom in mind, so the city planners originally built churches for every Christian sect they could think of. (Religious freedom only extends to Christians, apparently.) Most of the churches didn't seem to be operating as churches anymore; they're restaurants or dance clubs. Heidi #1 and Ruth and I went on a ghost tour that night to see the dark side of Dunedin. Apparently we're all now cursed for walking down a certain dark alley guarded by a ghost dog. You'd think the tour guide would have warned us before taking us down there.

I still wasn't feeling great the next day, so I slept in and then caught a bus to Oamaru in the afternoon. By the time I got to the hostel, I was ready for bed, which was good because the lady who ran the hostel didn't want to let me go anywhere. It was a small hostel, just eight beds in three rooms, and it was actually this lady's house. When I arrived, I think I looked worse than I felt. (My nose was red and raw from blowing it all day and she said I was pale, although I was always pale compared to the Kiwis!) She sent me to bed in a private room and told the other hostel guests that I might have swine flu. I wasn't sure if she was joking or not, and neither was anyone else, because they stayed far away from me. I tried to explain that it was just a weird allergic reaction to eating chocolate, but it didn't matter. She brought me a hot lemon drink that was supposed to make me feel better, and then actually went into town to get me some hot take-away food (which she paid for) so that I wouldn't try to use the kitchen. And she just WOULDN'T go away! All the fussing was nice for a while, like for about three minutes. But I'm not a person enjoys being fussed over, especially by a stranger. She told me later that her youngest child had just left home for college the day before, which made me feel kind of sorry for her. But she still bugged me.

The next day was my last day in New Zealand, and although this lady wanted me to stay in the hostel and sleep until it was time to catch my bus, I had no intention of doing so. Maybe if I was a nicer person I would have let myself be mothered by the poor empty-nester, but being the self-centered person that I am, I left the hostel early to explore Oamaru. Oamaru reminded me of a movie set. It kind of made me think of Back to the Future, with the towering white Victorian buildings ("Save the clock tower!"). But mostly it made me think of that Twilight Zone episode where the guy is all alone in the town, and even though he keeps finding evidence that other people had just been there (a burning cigarette, a phone off the hook, etc.), there are no people around. He keeps running around town yelling, "Where is everyone???" Oamaru was beautiful and utterly deserted that morning. Every so often I'd walk into a shop and see a surprised-looking shopkeeper, but then I'd go back outside and re-enter the Twilight Zone. People finally started appearing in town sometime in the mid-afternoon.

Oamaru is the home of a blue penguin colony, so a lot of the tourist trade revolves around the blue penguins. There's even seating area where you can sit and watch them come home at night. I took a walk through the nesting grounds and saw a couple of penguins (it's hard not to see them...they're everywhere!). Seeing them on the water, they almost look like ducks, but then when they dive underwater to get food, they suddenly have this sleek, stream-lined body that dives deep. They were fun to watch. Oamaru also had an old train that had been restored by train afficionados, which ran from downtown out to the penguin area (about a half hour one-way). I hopped on the train, not realizing it was taking me back to the same penguin nesting grounds I had just been to. It was still fun though; I was the only passenger on that particular train run, so the conductor and engineer spent lots of time telling me about the town.

And then I had to get on a bus bound for Christchurch, since the next morning I was flying to Auckland and then to Australia. My original semi-plan had been to go south from Auckland until it got cold, and then work my way back up north to Auckland and fly to Australia from there. But since it never really got cold, I kept heading south. I decided that, rather than take a marathon train or bus journey across both islands in just a few days, I would check to see how much it would cost to just fly from the South Island back up to Auckland. It was surprisingly cheap--only $40 to buy a last-minute plane ticket from Christchurch to Auckland. The downside was that I had saved some things to do on my way back up north, which I didn't end up getting to do. The temple, for example, was closed for two weeks for cleaning when I was in Hamilton, so I decided I'd see it on the way back up. This way, I didn't end up seeing it at all. But if I had done that, I would have missed out on something else, so things worked out okay after all.

Leaving New Zealand was hard. If I hadn't had the Peru trip coming up five days after I got back to the United States, I think I would have stayed in New Zealand indefinitely. Even so, I was about thisclose to skipping Peru, bailing on my dad (who's going to Peru with me), and becoming a beach bum in New Zealand. There are backpacker jobs all over the country where you work for 20 hours/week for room and board (that's how they get around the visa thing) picking fruit or pruning grapevines or cleaning the hostels. I totally would have stayed in New Zealand and done that. I still might go back and do exactly that.