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Back from New Zealand.
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Jan. 4th, 2009 | 06:44 pm
mood: 
tired
music: 鏡音リン】すすすす、すき、だあいすき
I return from a 2 week, far too long holiday in New Zealand, land of the annoying accents 8D (If anyone is from New Zealand and is offended by that, I'm sorry, but if an Australian thinks you have a stupid accent, then you better believe it)
Annoying aside, its a pretty country, or what we got to see of it anyway in its Summer. (mostly the south island) I am quite fond of these cold New Zealand Summers. If only we could import them somehow.
Instead of giving some great big boring account on everything that happened, I'll break it into a...long boring list of dotpoints!
*'Land of Sheep'? In my experience, New Zealand is far more 'Land of Ducks' than anything else. I swear every body of water must have had at least a thousand ducks in it...which is pretty much just awesome. I'm aware they'd mostly only migrated there for Summer, but like hell the sheep are native either. In Queenstown, I got to feed a bunch of them bread, and even got them to take it out of my hand. It was the best thing ever.
*Ducks aside, our intinerary was to start at Auckland (we didnt see much, except a rather horrifying, gigantic animatronic santa claus on the side of a building that looked like it would come alive and kill everyone at any second), then Christchurch (which is a really nice place, I think, it was just absolutley freezing when we were there), then off to Mount Cook for christmas via Timaru (a really, honestly lulzy town for reasons I dont think I should go into here), then to Queenstown (a pretty city by a giant lake in the mountains) and then Dunnedin. Finaly back to Christchurch where we got the plane back to Sydney. I'll give a brief account of things we did in and around those places.
*AUCKLAND: Nothing, really, we were only there for one night. We just had a brief look around, and went up the Sky Tower which is apparently the tallest tower in the southern hemisphere, and watched the bungee jumpers...bungee off it. NZ is almost unhealthily obsessed with bungee jumping for some inexplicable reason, but it's quite fun to watch... I also got to visit what must be the only decent anime related shop in the entire country here, and got an insanely priced Shana nendoroid. With the general nerd-unfriendly vibe the country seems to have (their major bookstore chain's 'trucks' section is larger than both 'science fiction' and 'art' for exaple) it's really no wonder the kiwi nerds all migrated here, if a large handful of SUAnime nationalities are anything to go by. Just an observation. There was probably a million other things to do here...much like our painfully short stopover in Osaka last year, but we had to go on to Christchurch, where we stayed for about 4 or 5 days.
*CHRISTCHURCH: It really is a pretty place. The city seems to be centered around 'cathedral square', where, obviously, there is a gigantic and simply gorgeous church. It also has some nice bridges and streams around it, and plenty of ducks, and some nice botanical gardens. As I said, it was bitterly cold however. Our second stopover to Christchurch on the way home was a great deal warmer. We went on a few day trips from here, including Akaroa, a small french settlement village, and also the Hanmer Thermal Springs, which would be best described as a 'hot springs theme park'. (seriously, that's what it looked like. Like one of those water parks but the water is hot) We also went to a few places to go hiking, which I am really bad at. While here we also went to an art gallery and a museum, which was good.
*MOUNT COOK: Technically not -on- Mount Cook, but in a national park/resort where you can clearly see it provided the weather is good. We stayed in an awfully small chalet here, and spent christmas here. Our christmas tree was a branch we found outside covered in roses chocolate wrappers, moppi's jewellery, and some hairbands of mine. I scored an external HD, 160GB, so I finaly have space on my laptop again (which only has 30 and was running painfully slow due to all the crap on it) On the last day here we went on a glacier tour in a small boat in this big lake with scary grey water, that is so...unpennetrable by light that apparently nothing lives in it at all. The glaciers were neat, though, but yeah, it was freezing again, as well as raining...
*QUEENSTOWN: Another pretty town, and one in which the tourist/local ratio must be about 1000:10 or something. The house we hired out was odd and narrow, as well as 3 storeys high. It was also right up this horrifyingly steep hill (I freaked out every time we drove up or down it because I thought we were going to tip the car over), but this meant that we had the most amazing view of the entire city, the lake, and the mountains. I say lake, but on the shore it really looks more like a beach, what with all the boats and the wharf and the sand and waves. Then you see a random willow tree in the sand, and a bunch of ducks in the waves, and its just awesome. (I think all the ducks in new zealand can surf) There was another gorgeous botanical garden here, too. We were also able to visit Arrowtown from here, a historical, goldrush era town. Also here is a sweet shop chain called 'the remarkable sweet shop' (I assume named due to 'the remarkables', the mountain range so promiment here) that sells the most amazing fudge I have ever tasted. Couldnt get enough of it, honestly...
There's also a gondola that goes up the mountain side to a restaurant and also a place you can ride a 'luge'. It is really hard to explain what a 'luge' is, and I hear that this one is one of the only 3 in the world (and apparently one of the others is also in NZ). It's like...go-karting down a very steep winding slope, only not. Its an Olympic sport except in that the people lie down, in this you sit up. Whatever, it was really fun anyway. We also visited 'Puzzling World', a nice little attraction full of illusion rooms and holograms and an outdoor maze.
*DUNNEDIN: The first thing we did in this city was the tour in the Chocolate Factory. The Cadbury chocolate factory, to be precise. Sadly the full-length tours dont operate that time of year, but we did get a shortened 45 minute one. It just meant the actual seeing-chocolate-being-made part was replaced with a video of it instead, which was sad, but what can you do. I did see a chocolate waterfall, anyway.
Next, we went out to Otago peninsula where we could see Albatross, Seals and Penguins in the wild. Including adorable, tiny little baby seals and penguins, too. We went to the New Year concert in the 'octagon' of Dunnedin (which is like a town square with four extra sides) and watched the band play and saw the fireworks go off. ...although they fired them off a building, so they exploded right above us, and all the ash and sparks rained down on us and it was scary as hell.
So then back to Christchurch, where I got the Cute Overload callendar and some souvenier chocolate, and finaly the plane home. I wouldnt call it a bad holiday by any means, 2 weeks is just...a little long. Plus I got sunburnt at Mount Cook and my arms itch like crazy, still.
Annoying aside, its a pretty country, or what we got to see of it anyway in its Summer. (mostly the south island) I am quite fond of these cold New Zealand Summers. If only we could import them somehow.
Instead of giving some great big boring account on everything that happened, I'll break it into a...long boring list of dotpoints!
*'Land of Sheep'? In my experience, New Zealand is far more 'Land of Ducks' than anything else. I swear every body of water must have had at least a thousand ducks in it...which is pretty much just awesome. I'm aware they'd mostly only migrated there for Summer, but like hell the sheep are native either. In Queenstown, I got to feed a bunch of them bread, and even got them to take it out of my hand. It was the best thing ever.
*Ducks aside, our intinerary was to start at Auckland (we didnt see much, except a rather horrifying, gigantic animatronic santa claus on the side of a building that looked like it would come alive and kill everyone at any second), then Christchurch (which is a really nice place, I think, it was just absolutley freezing when we were there), then off to Mount Cook for christmas via Timaru (a really, honestly lulzy town for reasons I dont think I should go into here), then to Queenstown (a pretty city by a giant lake in the mountains) and then Dunnedin. Finaly back to Christchurch where we got the plane back to Sydney. I'll give a brief account of things we did in and around those places.
*AUCKLAND: Nothing, really, we were only there for one night. We just had a brief look around, and went up the Sky Tower which is apparently the tallest tower in the southern hemisphere, and watched the bungee jumpers...bungee off it. NZ is almost unhealthily obsessed with bungee jumping for some inexplicable reason, but it's quite fun to watch... I also got to visit what must be the only decent anime related shop in the entire country here, and got an insanely priced Shana nendoroid. With the general nerd-unfriendly vibe the country seems to have (their major bookstore chain's 'trucks' section is larger than both 'science fiction' and 'art' for exaple) it's really no wonder the kiwi nerds all migrated here, if a large handful of SUAnime nationalities are anything to go by. Just an observation. There was probably a million other things to do here...much like our painfully short stopover in Osaka last year, but we had to go on to Christchurch, where we stayed for about 4 or 5 days.
*CHRISTCHURCH: It really is a pretty place. The city seems to be centered around 'cathedral square', where, obviously, there is a gigantic and simply gorgeous church. It also has some nice bridges and streams around it, and plenty of ducks, and some nice botanical gardens. As I said, it was bitterly cold however. Our second stopover to Christchurch on the way home was a great deal warmer. We went on a few day trips from here, including Akaroa, a small french settlement village, and also the Hanmer Thermal Springs, which would be best described as a 'hot springs theme park'. (seriously, that's what it looked like. Like one of those water parks but the water is hot) We also went to a few places to go hiking, which I am really bad at. While here we also went to an art gallery and a museum, which was good.
*MOUNT COOK: Technically not -on- Mount Cook, but in a national park/resort where you can clearly see it provided the weather is good. We stayed in an awfully small chalet here, and spent christmas here. Our christmas tree was a branch we found outside covered in roses chocolate wrappers, moppi's jewellery, and some hairbands of mine. I scored an external HD, 160GB, so I finaly have space on my laptop again (which only has 30 and was running painfully slow due to all the crap on it) On the last day here we went on a glacier tour in a small boat in this big lake with scary grey water, that is so...unpennetrable by light that apparently nothing lives in it at all. The glaciers were neat, though, but yeah, it was freezing again, as well as raining...
*QUEENSTOWN: Another pretty town, and one in which the tourist/local ratio must be about 1000:10 or something. The house we hired out was odd and narrow, as well as 3 storeys high. It was also right up this horrifyingly steep hill (I freaked out every time we drove up or down it because I thought we were going to tip the car over), but this meant that we had the most amazing view of the entire city, the lake, and the mountains. I say lake, but on the shore it really looks more like a beach, what with all the boats and the wharf and the sand and waves. Then you see a random willow tree in the sand, and a bunch of ducks in the waves, and its just awesome. (I think all the ducks in new zealand can surf) There was another gorgeous botanical garden here, too. We were also able to visit Arrowtown from here, a historical, goldrush era town. Also here is a sweet shop chain called 'the remarkable sweet shop' (I assume named due to 'the remarkables', the mountain range so promiment here) that sells the most amazing fudge I have ever tasted. Couldnt get enough of it, honestly...
There's also a gondola that goes up the mountain side to a restaurant and also a place you can ride a 'luge'. It is really hard to explain what a 'luge' is, and I hear that this one is one of the only 3 in the world (and apparently one of the others is also in NZ). It's like...go-karting down a very steep winding slope, only not. Its an Olympic sport except in that the people lie down, in this you sit up. Whatever, it was really fun anyway. We also visited 'Puzzling World', a nice little attraction full of illusion rooms and holograms and an outdoor maze.
*DUNNEDIN: The first thing we did in this city was the tour in the Chocolate Factory. The Cadbury chocolate factory, to be precise. Sadly the full-length tours dont operate that time of year, but we did get a shortened 45 minute one. It just meant the actual seeing-chocolate-being-made part was replaced with a video of it instead, which was sad, but what can you do. I did see a chocolate waterfall, anyway.
Next, we went out to Otago peninsula where we could see Albatross, Seals and Penguins in the wild. Including adorable, tiny little baby seals and penguins, too. We went to the New Year concert in the 'octagon' of Dunnedin (which is like a town square with four extra sides) and watched the band play and saw the fireworks go off. ...although they fired them off a building, so they exploded right above us, and all the ash and sparks rained down on us and it was scary as hell.
So then back to Christchurch, where I got the Cute Overload callendar and some souvenier chocolate, and finaly the plane home. I wouldnt call it a bad holiday by any means, 2 weeks is just...a little long. Plus I got sunburnt at Mount Cook and my arms itch like crazy, still.
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