Catching Up Yet Again

EDIT: I hate SP internet and/or blogger... I am having a huge problem getting the site to allow me to get photos into the blog. As a hopefully temporary workaround I had to go and edit an old post with photos, copy the html coding for images and figure out how to get it to work in the blog; which actually requires me to go to flickr and get the page location that links to the flickr image as well as right clicking on the image and copying the actual location of the image, with these I can then edit the old post html image format and input it here. So just realize that any photos on here have been a pain in the toosh to get here.


First let me say, though i do not have the time (due to my internet time restrictions) to edit and label all my photos, almost all of my photos are now up on my flickr page. Thanks Ian!! So feel free to go and peruse my photos, I will slowly be including some into the blog as entries and such. Though it will still take a bit as I still am trying to catch up.
Here is the link to the photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/22826465@N04/sets/

So decided to stay up all night again to get some stuff done on the interweb. Comes up at 2:40AM right now. The good thing is it’s getting closer and closer to a time that I can just stay up do my thing then actually go back and get some sleep. Like I said before I don’t mind staying up for a couple of days, in fact it’s quite normal. Everyone is so shocked here that I do it, not sure why. Anywho back on to the trip:

Continued from previous blog entry:

After I finished settling into the hotel room I went out on a mission. I started out from the hotel to find a weird sculpture thingy with a tire on the middle of it. Interesting I suppose. There were a lot of little shops all over the place, very touristy location.




Once I made it to the cathedral square I had accomplished my mission. I found coffee. Not just coffee, but Starbucks. I was quite happy when I found it. It had been 12 or so hours since, I last had coffee. There was a very very cute little kiwi barista. Needless to say I went back there a few times during my two days there :}.



The cathedral in cathedral square was kind of spiffy too. I didn’t go into the cathedral, just shot some pics from outside. I figured I could check all this stuff out fully when I get back from the pole.



Now to the weird part of the little trek out to the square…Sitting in front of the square was a huge purple sperm looking thing running over what seemed to be small children or just people in general. The thing had windows in it and looked sort of sub-ish. I never read what the sign said sitting in front of it while I was there. I did however look at the sign in one of the pics, and it not only just looked like a giant purple sperm; it actually was a giant purple sperm running over people. Why there was a giant purple sperm in front of a cathedral is beyond me, you would never see something like that in the uptight US, not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. I think probably the latter.





The other really cool thing right behind the giant purple monster was a giant outdoor chess set. Where folks come up and just randomly start playing against one another. It was pretty cool. I wanted to run up to the board and steal one of the knights and ride off with it…






I then moved on from there and started walking around and found a cool bridge thingy, took a photo of it naturally.


And then moved on along the little creek rivery thing. I crossed over at another little bridge thing on my way to the Botanical Gardens, pulled pip out and grabbed another shot.


The botanical gardens were cool I guess, nothing too special really. I did take a bunch of photos, sat at the rivery creek thing watched some ducks and canoers go by.








Once satisfied with the gardens I moved back towards the city looking for a little hat shop Ian told me about. And like he said it was completely hidden. I only found it because I started walking into and around an area that looked cool and decided to snoop around. As I was walking out of the area I saw the little wool shop, shweet. Spent some time in there trying on a few hand knit wool caps, found one that was gonna work and left. Very wonderfully nice folks in there. I then went looking for food, specifically the Dux de Lux. I walked all over the damn city looking for the stupid restaurant. I kept seeing signs and such but never a main entrance anywhere, I finally just walked into some back bar thingy where I saw a worker with a dux shirt taking trash out that eventually led to the Dux. Which again was confusing because the Dux de Lux isn’t just one little restaurant it’s split up into pieces. I was told by many people that I had to go to the Dux de Lux if I get the chance while in Christchurch. Apparently all they serve is seafood and vegetarian food. Lame. I don’t eat seafood, so I found a nice little veggie sandwich that looked good and grabbed some of their salads. Potato and coleslaw I think, can’t remember. I also grabbed a ginger beer. And pip had the Pale Ale.






Now let me just say I was not impressed with the Dux in any form. I really don’t know what all the hubbub was about. The food was indeed good, not spectacular. The beer was good, not spectacular. In fact the ginger beer was only good for the first few swallows then it was far too flowery and well tasted like you were drinking perfume. The ginger beer my buddy Ian made was better imho. I did have at least one of every beer they made there; the dark stout was good, but again not spectacular. It was a cool place to hang out with folks and throw back a beer or 10 *cough*.

All in all I would have to say my trip into New Zealand, Auckland and Christchurch specifically was very very disappointing. I suppose I’ve been spoiled living in Boulder the past 5 years. The scenery, that I saw, wasn’t anything to really talk about. The city was just a HUGE tourist trap, Pearl Street on every street. I was really let down. I have been waiting for most of my life to get to New Zealand and so far I have been let down. Boulder had everything that Christchurch had, the food in Boulder is better, the beer in Boulder is FAR better. In fact I got sick after eating at some local little coffee shop, having some sort of frittata that they semi half warmed up for me and gave me catchup to go on top, and to top it off the coffee I had was disgusting, and they put a “marshmallow” in it. They are quite fond of marshmallows down there for some reason. Now I only think it was a marshmallow, either that or it was some weird compact napkin thing that I threw in my coffee and tried to drink…from the taste of it, it could have gone either way. Now I do prefer the locals of Christchurch over Boulderites for sure.

I know that I only saw a small portion of New Zealand, a very very small portion, and it was in fact a very touristy spot. I’m very hopeful that my trip back through will be better and all that I have dreamed of. I plan to avoid all the large major cities and see the country. Then I’m sure my story will be changing, and I will be writing about how I will never be coming back to the states ;}.