Friday, November 20, 2009

Christchurch - The Last Leg

*update* review of dim sum restaurant in this post has been updated in my food blog.

I arrived at my final leg in New Zealand - Christchurch adopting a new concept for masking tape.

masking tape wallet 3


My host in Christchurch taught me that the best way to not get your wallet stolen was by making your very own wallet from the cheapest material you can find in a stationery shop. (He lost his previous LV wallet)

masking tape wallet 2


masking tape wallet


After hitch hiking down from Marlborough with a random German couple, I met up with Danny, my reader and host in Christchurch. A sweet sensitive guy whom you should be dialing his number right now to ask for a date.

danny driving


sitting in car


while I comfortably sat in his car as he drove me around Christchurch
.

driving to cable car


We went out of town to take the gondola up the Port Hills to see the beautiful landscape Christchurch takes pride in.

gondola sign


posing inside gondola


The ride cost us NZD44 for two. Not a cheap ride, but definitely worth while considering there up there were really spectacular.

looking down from gondola


ocean within


beautiful bay


The cafe's food quite delicious. A great place for an afternoon tea.

building on top


sitting in gondola cafe


From the summit, you can catch a glimpse of Akaroa - a historic French and British settlement nestled in the heart of an ancient volcano.

mountain ocean bay


If you have the transport and time here in Christchurch, take a day trip 85 km east to Akaroa to bask in the beauty of what's left by two erupted volcanoes.

beautiful scenery at the top


The place was first sighted by Captain Cook in 1770 and was then was settled by French in the mid 1800.

Get a jacket when you visit the summit, it's windy.

strong wind blowing my hair


I mean really windy.

Now my Christchurch experience can be summed up in two: Food

chicken feet


& Culture.

nicole posing on colorful steps


Danny's parents own a very neat dim sum restaurant in Christchurch which he brought me there for lunch one day.

danny and dim sum menu


The restaurant is called Foo San. You should go and support our countrymen's business in foreign land.

He also brought me to sample some of Christchurch's finest desert in a local popular dessert cafe - Strawberry Fare.

dessert shop


Where we indulged in crazily sinful rich and moist cakes (keep a look out for my food blog soon for this one too).

cheese cake


At night we would sit at home in front of his big ass flat screen and sip wine and eat cheese with chutney while watching Slumdog Millionaire. Kiwi life, one has got to love it.

Danny's mom is one of those rare friendly awesome moms who allowed her son to invite travellers from all over the world to come to their house and stay and eat for free. They have a way to make you feel most at home that you can't help but to feel embarrassed.

Just before me, Danny hosted a Hong Kong traveller for a week who was visiting Christchurch in the guest room I was staying then.

Speaking of his house, he has a typical tree-hugging organic kiwi backyard where you can find all the locally produced fruit trees around.

One being the Feijoa fruit tree.

photo with feijoa fruit


feijoa fruit


Amongst many other fruits too.

apple


lemons
lemons, not lime.


home grown strawberries


Before I leave the city and country altogether, I was brought on a walking tour around Christchurch to see some of the typical tourist spots you'll find in town.

Like the famous Christchurch Art Gallery.

christchurch art gallery


And its famous colorful staircase. Which we shamelessly took millions of photos on.

me on colorful stairs


danny jumps
Danny jumps


nicole jumps
Nicole jumps (photographer fails)


colorful staircase of art gallery


colorful stairs
distant Danny


danny posing in art gallery staircase
near Danny


final pose on colorful stairs
cool pose


And then the guards came and we had to run. :p


Then we visited the Cathedral Square.

Cathederal Square and cathedral


Where you'll find the strange metal sculpture in the centre in front of the Cathedral.

kissing Cathederal Square


And a shot of me with one of the hundreds of similar Cathedral I've seen around the world.

Christchurch Cathederal


And the inside.

inside Cathederal


And the pope's chair.

im the pope


I'm just guessing. I don't think it's the pope's chair.

halleluja
Fallen angel.


Then continue to act silly almost everywhere else, Danny being my ally.

holy grail


If you can't tell, I'm imitating the angel with the sword at the top.

I also spotted Captain Cook somewhere near a fountain area.

salute statue


Well, that's the end of my long New Zealand trip.

With that, I left Christchurch and headed back to Australia.

But not before heading toward Perth before flying back to Malaysia as my final stop.


Bye bye Christchurch. I lup you. *hug*

hugging big metal


Yes I know. I'm loony.



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