South Island Part 2: Christchurch

Day 6

Travel Day! We sadly said goodbye to Queenstown, but gladly said hello to Christchurch.

Oh how we love these vans that we have spent hours upon hours inside of!

Christchurch is a much older town, more historical and low-key compared to Queenstown. But, it is one of the three largest cities in New Zealand (Auckland and Wellington are the other 2), and apparently a necessary stop as American tourists. It also has some neat history because it is the last city people stop in before heading down on Antarctican adventures.

Today we went to a big market, half of which was in the town center right next to the cathedral. THen we had a big Dominos pizza night. We were a little shocked by how tiny the "large" pizzas were--maybe not even the size of an American medium--but it was delicious nonetheless.

Tomorrow is Waitangi Day, which similar to America's Independence day, except they celebrate the day when the Europeans and the Maori signed the Treaty of Waitangi. We were lucky enough to celebrate by attending a huge show in the park--orchestras, ballroom dancers, singing/performing groups, Kappa Haka groups, and an amazing finale of fireworks and Bohemian Rhapsody. Quite entertaining.

Day 7

Church was lovely today. I started asking around about the "Burnetts" and I was directed a woman who had been around Christchurch her whole life. She told me that the Burnetts are known as one of the first LDS families in New Zealand. Another lady overheard that I was related to William and James Burnett, and kept saying, "Oh! Well, welcome home!" They said there really aren't Burnetts around there today because they all packed up and went to Utah. Then I found out that James, friend of the BYU program and bus driver, is also related to William Burnett! He said he'll look up all the details when we get back to Auckland so we can make the right connections. Cool huh!

We spent the rest of the afternoon driving around the Christchurch and Lyttleton harbors and then up the mountains around the water. It was beautiful! I decided standing on top of a mountain and letting the wind rush through my hair is one of my favorite things.

We ended the day with a big dinner organized by Jess and I (it was so yum!) and then TIM TAM SLAMS. We have been talking about doing these since we got here, and we finally did it. You bite off opposite corners of a tim tam, suck milo through it, and then get it into your mouth without using your hands and before it melts all over everything. It was so much fun watching everyone try it. And, most of us were successful!

VICTORY!

Day 8

RAIN. all. day. We were supposed to go to the beach today, but ended up driving to Akaroa, a cute little French town. We enjoyed the scenery and some of the shops, and then made our way to the Musuem in Christchurch. We've seen a lot of museums, but this one had some really interesting exhibits. My favorite was the Paua Shell House. We watched a movie about how this cute little old couple transformed their house using paua shells, which are unique to NZ.

I don't think I would ever decorate my house with all these paua shells,

but it was neat to see someone else do it haha

I got to ride this bike, but unfortunately it was stationary...maybe some day I'll get to ride it for real!

One good thing about the rain...we spent a lot of time in the van with James, and he taught us (or at least tried teaching us) a bunch of polynesian songs. This was our favorite (and the only one we really know all the words to!)

Day 9

Because we got rained out yesterday, we moved our beach day to today. It. was. amazing. The weather was beautiful, and we just stayed there all day long! Here were some of the highlights:

• Learning the Hoe-down Throw-down. On the beach. I know it's ridiculous, but for only going through it a couple of times, I'd say we did pretty good ;)

• We saw some sweet as beach sand art!

• Lots of fun beach pictures :)

Some girls were doing aerials, but Christine and I were content doing cartwheels.

• I held a CRAB!! We were right by a pier, and on the end, we watched lots and lots of crabbers and fishermen. Jess and I seriously stood down there forever, so intrigued with these crabbers. We wanted to ask them if we could try, but none of them spoke English! Later, however, we made friends with new crabbers, and one old man let us hold the crabs. It was kinda scary at first with their intense claws, but once we learned how to hold them it was a piece of cake. The ones we held were pretty small, but we saw some that were at least ten times bigger.

This was our crabber friend...he was missing at least 2 fingers. So legit haha

Hold a crab and take a picture with it? Check!

Day 10

Today was the last day of our excursion. We were all exhausted. Luckily, we didn't have any specific plans, so we just got to walk around and explore. We got a tour of the cathedral, and Jess and I even stayed for one of their communion services. We were the youngest ones there by 50 years, but they were all so nice during our very interesting experience. Right outside the cathedral is this huge Rugby World Cup Countdown. I so wish we would be here for it!

My favorite part of Christchurch was the Botanic Gardens. The flowers and plants were absolutely gorgeous. And the garden was HUGE, so we spent most of the day exploring all of the different flowers. LOVED it!

Begonias! In every color!

Yes, the begonia garden was definitely one of my favs!

Incredible rose gardens!

I'm pretty sure I will blow this picture up and put it in my house someday :)

The last thing we did before heading off to the airport? Eat dinner at Denny's of course! We were all pretty excited, especially since New Zealand Denny's is a couple notches above the American Denny's.