Christchurch to Greymouth via Tranzalpine train.

The best way to get from Christchurch to Greymouth, I've been told, is to take the train. One of the best 10 train rides of the world and a mere 3 hours, so why not?

Got picket up from the hostel at the ungodly time of 7:15 am to a small train station. It's a foggy morning, so visibility isn't as great as I would've liked it to be.

Outside Christchurch there is only the countryside, with more sheep and cows than there are people. Food wise this is a huge up NZ has over North America. Meat here is free range and sold in supermarkets. Something which is expensive and not so easy to come by in Canada.
The crazy mountain weather is such that one one side of the mountain it is rainy and foggy and on the other it is sunshine with no trace of clouds in the sky! We went through a tunnel and no more fog or rain or anything like that.


Photos are crap to take from here, they just fail to capture how utterly gorgeous the area really is. Sunlit mountains and fields of grass. Reminds me of Africa slightly. The mountains are carved by a now gone glacier and there are valleys and rivers down the mountain. It's just so unreal.
The mountains are different on the two coasts as well. The mountains on the east coast are all brown and bare with fields underneath. Mountains on the west coast are covered in thick vegetation aka The Bush, which according to the guidebook is actually a rainforest.

According the people, it rains 70% of the time on the west coast and it rained 25 days in the month of February. I guess I gotta get used to wet weather, or go buy some light raingear as I don't think I can stay indoors if it rains daily.

White water rafting (Rangitata Rafts)

I decided to go rafting, first because everyone recommended me as a must do in activity in NZ , but also because after exploring Christchurch from morning till evening I felt like I needed something else.

I got picked up at the hostel at about 9: 15 in the morning to a destination about 2 hours away from the Christchurch.

The destination turned out to be a charming lodge surrounded by greenery and mountains. When I left Christchurch it was raining pretty hard but once we got there it was sunny and warm, basically a gift of a day to go rafting.

Getting into that wet suit is a right bitch, let me tell you. I mean I had to wear a size too big because my giant shins wouldn't go through the small sized suit.
There is a lot of gear involved - two shirts, a wet suit, helmet, a splash jacket and a life jacket.

We dragged the raft into the water and got into it. The river started wide, so as we floated gently we got instruction on what to do - basically how to follow orders. The grade 3 current was like a bumpy ride. The guide kept explaining what to do if we are thrown off the raft or what to do if someone else does. At the end those 5 grade currents weren't too bad. I mean they are like a washing machine but they are pretty short.

The challenge I found was when you go down into that swirling flushing toilet all you want to do is hold on but the guide keeps telling you to row forward so you can get through that.
I regret not having a waterproof, shockproof camera because the location was definitely one of the prettiest places you can raft. The water was turquoise and surrounded by cliffs and mountains it was just magical.

The highlight for me was when the current became gentle, the guide stopped the boat and we climbed up a cliff to jump into the narrow river.
It's quite scary because you are standing on an edge and the entire passage looks too narrow and the water too far away. It was shocking freezing upon impact, but I warmed up quickly once I was in the water for a few seconds. Floating for a bit into a widening of the river, I had to climb that shore - which was just a bunch of slippery rocks.

Down the river where it's wider there are two more cliffs. The qualifying jump which is high. And the high cliff(from which you do "The leap of faith") which is damn high. It's about 10 meters or so by my estimation, but it looks so much higher when you are looking at the water down below.
I think I enjoyed it more than the rafting.

There is an aspect I didn't like - they advertise over two hours raft time but I swear we were waiting more than rafting - for the photographer... For the other rafts... I would've really liked it moreif it was continuous plus the stop for the cliff jumping.

The afternoon after was such a feel good time - a warm shower, bbq, barefoot on the grass under the warm afternoon sun and all that greenery around you.
The photos were 40$ so I opted not to buy them.

Christchurch: First impressions.

Taking the bus from the airaport to the hostel, my first impression is that the city is really green, everything is flowering and very clean (as opposed to, say, Montreal).

My second impression is that the city is actually a suburban town. It's not very large and there are no real high rises. To be fair, according to the locals there is not much of Christchurch left. Even so, going by the demolition sites I can still imagine the city that once was and I tell you - Christchurch is still very beautiful, but even with the would be buildings it still wasn't a very large city.

Getting around is tricky, as the entirety of the city centre is closed, and a lot of the historical buildings are either down or supported by steel beams.

Dominating the city south there is a prominent mountain, which made it really easy to orient myself in the city since day one (I just remembered where the mountain is in relation to the hostel and off I went to explore in an unfamiliar land with no map, sleepwalking with jetlag through a foreign city).


For budget travelers like me, this city was very budget friendly as both the botanical gardens and the museum were free (well, to be honest the museum was with suggested donation).
Another discovery made about NZ - the WiFi here is so damn pricey. At the hostel I got a voucher for 50 MB free, which is apparantly standard practice whenever hostels say they have free WiFi. To buy more, depends on your data usage - and let's admit if you are browsing a photo heavy blog is going to be a lot is pricey.

Luckily the library came to the rescue as it offers free WiFi. You would think this is obvious but when I said "why not go to the library" to fellow distraught backpackers they were "oh wow, didn't think of the obvious idea". So there you go.

Hi! (aka introduction)

My name is Marina, but I always want to introduce myself with a cooler name or nickname but I haven't come up with anything else I want to go by other than the lovin' handle given to me by my parents. People always pronounce it in a silly way or as part of a song or try to pinpoint my origins as eastern European.

I started college and found a job in Toronto, and even got a dog, but I just kept feeling restless and I never got to like the city. Part of it is the city itself, and another part is me - I still don't know what to do with my life. I always say I want to try something new, so I guess I finally got to it.

The decision to go to NZ to "reset" was a spontaneous one, as I never talked about it. In pretty much under a month I quit my job, got my visa, my tickets and a backpack. I felt like I was doing all right with my job in IT but there just wasn't any excitement. Hopefully in NZ, I could find some adventure.

I am not sure how long I am going to stay here - anywhere between a month to a year is fair game. That way, if I don't like it, I would go back and if I do I would have the time to stay in places of interest as long as I want to (and money allows).
I don't suppose I want this to be strictly a travel diary - as there are a ton of these out there from people who have been to many more places that I even dare to aspire to, but every once in a while I feel like blogging, and a trip as a good place to start as any.

Photo: My dog, Lady, who was left behind with my parents and their dog.

Wanderlust

"Did I imagine it would be like this?
Was it something like this I wished for?
Or will I want more?"