23 April 09

17 April: I didn't do a whole lot. I walked over to Baldwin St. which is supposed to be the steepest street in the world. Boy was it steep. I'm sure there are streets in San Fransisco that are pretty close to Baldwin St, but it must have that extra little steepness or something.

Later that evening I thought I took a tour of the Speight's Brewery. It's a nice brewery in the middle of the city. It's a little bit different than the Anheuser-Busch Brewery in St. Louis that I took back in 2005. It's pretty big, but not huge. Not to mention, the beer is much better than anything I think I have tried from Anheuser-Busch.

18 April: Amelie, a German girl I met earlier in my travels, took Cecilia and I to the Moeraki Boulders on our way to Mt. Cook. Moeraki Boulders are these strange boulders on the beach near the town of Moeraki. They are large and spherical. Some look like dinosaur eggs and have cracks all over them. They're pretty neat looking.

Amelie wasn't going the whole way to Mt. Cook so she dropped us off at the junction. Before she drove off, the most unexpected group of people picked us up, a Thai family in an RV on a family holiday. The closest I could get to pronouncing their names were Cha'ong and Ursá. I didn't catch the name of the son and daughter. They were really pleasant to ride with and we even got to stop and take some pictures.

Once we arrived at Mt. Cook village, I took off for the Mueller Hut. The hut was full, but the night was supposed to be good, so I camped outside the hut. It was quite the hike to the hut, about four hours strait up. It would have been pretty easy, but I had my whole backpack on which weighed about 25kg. I met a group of young people at the top. Debbie and Hugo were the two most talkative. It was great, they showed lots of interest in Alaska, so, we talked a lot about Alaska.

19 April: I woke up to a most spectacular sunrise. I couldn't have asked for much more, no wind, not too cold, a few clouds, serenity. It was something else.

About half way down the mountain, I ran into David, an English raised immigrant whose family ended up in San Fransisco area. We talked the rest of the way down the mountain and split when I told him I was doing to Hooker Valley Track. An hour and a half later, I arrived at the terminus of the glacier and stopped for a break. I had run into a family from the States who were visiting their son who was studying at university in Wellington. We chatted for a while and I continued.

Once I got back to the village, I had a quick lunch and had to get out of there. The second car that passed, stopped to pick me up. Marco from Switzerland picked me up. He said I was his first hitch hiker with his broken English. He said that he was going to Lake Tekapo and then Christchurch the next day. So, I got a lift to Lake Tekapo. The hostel where I wanted to stay was booked full. I could have gone to other places, but instead I decided that it was a quiet enough place to sleep on the beach. I didn't set up my ten or anything. I just slept under the stars in my sleeping bag. It was kind of nice.

20 April: Marco said he would drive me to Christchurch the day before because he was headed that way also. I met up with him and off we went. Less than three hours later, arrived in the city and we split.

Chirstchurch seemed like an all right place. It was clean, there were touristy things to do in the center of town, but other than that, it didn't seem like there was a lot happening. I stayed one night and decided to go to the little town of Akaroa out on the Banks Peninsula.

21 April: I took a shuttle bus out to Akaroa. It is a little town situated on an inlet. It's pretty touristy and it's claim to fame is that you can swim with dolphins. I didn't, but I did walk around a little instead. I met my Swiss friend Anett out there also. Because there wasn't a whole lot to do out there, I left the next morning.

22 April: I took off on foot about 8:00am. I walked about three or four kms. and got a ride for an older gentleman named John. Originally English, John has lived in New Zealand for the last 32 years. Although soft spoken, and at time difficult to hear over the noise of the car, we had a great conversation for the whole duration of the hour and a half trip from near Akaroa all the way to Christchurch. We talked mostly about the differences in New Zealand and English accents and the linguists behind how, what and why the English language has changed so much between all the different major English speaking countries in the world. It was nice to have an intriguing conversation with him. John was on the way to a Home Depot kind of store to pick up some plumbing supplies as his trade is a plumber. He just let me off at the warehouse parking lot and I was on my way. The last bit of dialogue was nice, “Thank you so much for the ride John. It was a pleasure riding with you”.
“The pleasure is mine, it was nice having some company for the ride”, he replied.

Once I returned to Christchurch, I didn't do a whole lot. I went to the museum and botanic gardens the day before, so I just walked around a bit more the second day I was there.

In the evening, I met up with Anett for sushi. That was fun because it was her first time eating sushi. After we parted ways, I met up with Ziv, as he was back in Christchurch. We had a couple of beers at a pub with a couple people from where he was staying.

23 April: I walked around a bit more just to look around. Not a whole lot happening on this day though. I was just waiting to get on my plane to Melbourne.