I went to Christchurch, New Zealand in November...

.... and finally I have got around to writing about it.


Toby and I outside a winery. Yum.

The first few days of my trip were taken up by the ANZ PeopleSoft SIG/Oracle HEUG - whatever it's called these days (boring work conference thing - yawn which actually wasn't too bad but is definitely not good blog subject matter). The weather was awful: cold, wet and windy but I didn't really care, partly because it's so rarely like that in Queensland that it was a bit of a novelty and it kind of reminded me of home, and partly because I was so darn busy I hardly got any time to spend in it. The public telephone and calling card system in Christchurch frequently drove me batty as I tried to contact Toby back in Australia to finalise the details of our trip over the weekend.

The conference finished on Wednesday and after a wee bit of shopping and some organising I was met by Ann Buckle, wife of Don, cousin of Colin (my Grandpa). These are the New Zealand contingents of Buckles and, until very recently when I shifted continents, the lone southern hemisphere representatives. Ann drove me back to their lovely little home, put me up in their very comfortable spare room and cooked me a yummy dinner before I crashed out.

Christchurch is quite pretty as far as cities go. It's small too - only 350,000 occupants. I did a bit of sightseeing whilst I was there. I was lucky enough to catch an Ansell Adams photography exhibition at the Art Gallery and also a very interesting Korean exhibition, full of what are probably more accurately described as "installations" than works of art. It was quite fun, the signature piece being a snake made from computer keyboard keys protecting a nest of eggs made from PC mice (or is it mouses?). I also checked out the museum which was quite impressive and had an interesting exhibition on Antartica amongst other things. I travelled on the tourist tram more out of laziness than anything else. I learnt a few bits and pieces but can't really say it was worth the $12.50. There's a lovely little river winding through the city, called the Avon. And you can punt along it (or at least be punted). Punting along the Avon in Christchurch (which is in Canterbury)? It's all very confusing.

Toby arrived on Thursday night and his plane was late. He was three hours behind us so he was okay but Don, Ann and I struggled to stay awake and get him home from the airport. The next day Toby and I wandered into town via Hagley Park and the Botanical Gardens which are huge and very beautiful. Upon discovering a patch of daisies I regressed to a 7 year old and insisted on sitting amongst them making a daisy chain which I then fashioned into a necklace. I could never quite manage that finishing touch as a child so obviously my jewellery making skills are coming in handy.

After marvelling over the many huge trees, which were apparently planted by the settlers when they arrived and chasing birds catching worms we found ourselves in Cathedral Square and waited for our guide to pick us up and take us on the Vin de Pays Wine Tour for the afternoon. We were the only two on the tour and had a great time visiting five wineries, starting with a luncheon platter in the first. The countryside was interesting and the weather was surprisingly hot. Apparently the Waipara Valley where the wineries are has its own microclimate a few degrees warmer than Christchurch so we sweated in our jeans. The wines were good - although not spectacular. I was surprised to find I preferred the usually heavier whites, such as the Chardonnays which were actually quite light, and the lighter reds, rather than the Sauvignon Blancs I usually go for. We bought ourselves a couple of bottles of port and desert wine as we went along the way. At the final winery, Pegasus Bay, I finally found the wine I was looking for, a beautifully crisp, fruity Sauvignon Blanc. So obviously I bought a couple of bottles. However, when I got it home and looked at the label more closely I realised that it was actually grown in the Marlborough region of New Zealand, confirming what I already thought - that Marlborough does the best whites in the region.

Once deposited back at Cathedral Square we went off to the cinema to see the very Christmassy The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, more than a week before it was even due to be released in Australia. I loved it. It took me right back to my childhood and made me want to read all of the books again. Tilda Swinton was excellent as the ice queen.

The next morning we headed back into town and onto a bus to the beautiful harbour town of Akaroa, armed with my new toy - an underwater housing for my camera. Akaroa is on Banks Peninsular which is the remnants of two old volcanoes, their craters now filled with water forming Littleton Harbour and the harbour that Akaroa sits on. It's a lovely little fishing village with a heavy French influence - even some of the street names are in French. We didn't look around too much though because we'd come with one purpose in mind: to swim with dolphins.

The dolphins at Akaroa are the rarest breed in the world, living only in New Zealand, and one of the smallest, averaging just over a metre in length. They are called Hector's Dolphins named after Sir James Hector, a scientist and curator of the Colonial Museum in Wellington, who examined the first specimen of the dolphin. We booted and suited into extremely thick wetsuits and sped out on a very fast boat, looking for dolphins to jump in the nippy 14C water with. At first it seemed like we mightn't be in luck, although the tour company did promise to fully refund us should we see no dolphins and to give us half our money back should we see them but not get to swim with them. It was breeding season and we weren't allowed to get in the water with a mother and calf. We did see such a pair from the boat though and the baby was tiny.

Eventually, after jumping in and out of the water a couple of times, we found an interested pod of about 12 or so dolphins and hopped in the water with them. They put on an amazing show of leaps and twirls out of the water. I think they spent more time watching us than we did them as the water was pretty murky and it was a matter of luck as to whether you had your head below the water and were looking in the right direction when a dolphin happened to cruise by. And when you did it was an amazing feeling. They would swim so close you could almost touch them (except you're not supposed to as they have very sensitive skin) but they were also very fast and were gone before you could comprehend what had happened. I tried to swim after one but he was way too fast for me and the murky water freaked me out a bit once I was below the surface. Toby had the knack of diving much more than I did and a few times the dolphins dived down with him and then swam back up with him. All in all it was one of the most special experiences I have ever had. I tried to get the hang of the digital camera underwater housing beforehand but we still ended up with a lot of terrible pictures of not much at all, a film of the lens cap, 1 second films when we thought we were taking still pictures, and an incredibly long movie of not much at all apart from some very arty shots of the mountains, some lovely singing as I played Snorkel Disco to attract the dolphins, and the dolphins' clickety-click responses. We got a couple of gems though, including a 10 second movie of a dolphin swimming right past me, echo-locating, and Toby took a couple of good photographs.


Hector's Dolphin leaping out of the water

Download the dolphin movie. This is an MP4 file so you'll probably need something like Quicktime or VLC Media Player to play it.

The rest of the weekend was spent hanging out with the lovely Buckles, Don, Ann and their daughter Janet and I must thank them for being so hospitable and for putting up with us for so long.

My very brief encounter with New Zealand has left me eager to explore more. It's a beautiful and varied country, reminding me a little bit of home but still very different. I have uploaded some (lots!) of our photos to a server Mark set up for me (thanks Mark!). Check them out at http://snapper.cvsdude.com/gallery/linsb/v/20051218_NewZealand-Christchurch/