the canterbury plains

Today we woke up in the Dorset House Backpacker - February 1st. As I am transferring these notes from my journal to my blog - February 26th - I have been told that because of the Earthquake in Christchurch that happened a few days ago, there have been a lot of injuries and even bodies pulled from the Dorset House. It seems that the girls and I are being looked after.

We walked to a fresh fruit market for nectarines and danishes and a small tour of the streets of Christchurch. We found rain gardens, but not a single garbage bin! The streets are so clean for not having waste baskets. From the Dorset House, Karen and John picked us up and showed us Christchurch’s Avon River, which was very picturesque, the city centre, and what it’s like to drive on the left side of the road! We went to Graham and Alison’s, who are ‘relies’ of Karen and John. We had our first meat pies and saw Heather’s future school - Lincoln University. Compared to Guelph, Lincoln is a relatively small school. The town is cute and we know where the grocery store is.

On our road trip, we took pictures of a funny letterbox - mailbox - and stopped at a big Salmon statue in Rakaia, which is famous for the salmon swimming in the Rakaia Braided River. Apparently, native Canadians even came to this river to sing songs to the salmon, trying to convince them to return to their rivers in Canada. We also stopped at the clock tower in Ashburton and on the way to Karen and John’s house in Ashburton, I saw my first Case IH dealership. The first deere dealership I saw was actually owned by Karen and John’s son..  Karen and John have a peacock named Cockie that will wander into the house and watch tv. They are harvesting wheat now and also have 500 lambs. They are very nice people and I am thankful for their kindness and shelter! Anyway, we are at their farmhouse now drinking a glass of sparkling New Zealand wine to celebrate the beginning of our journey!

I have noticed a few things that are different between the everyday Canadian life and the life of a kiwi. For example, there are a lot of meat pies and tea here, and their subs are called bread rolls. A block is property, and there are a lot of conifer trees that have palm trees in the same tree lines. It looks so odd to me, but I think I will get used to it. Also, the roads are narrow and fast, as I’ve mentioned, and they have grass shoulders that people often pull over on to make a U turn. I have also been told that the difference between the Australian and New Zealand accent  is that NZ says their e’s as i’s while Aussie’s say their e’s more like a’s. The New Zealanders are very proud that they “have the better sounding accent”. I’ll see if I can tell the difference once I get to oz. 

Shot from the Plane

Letterbox in Ashburton

Rakaia's Giant Salmon

Ashburton Clock Tower