Homeward Bound

New Zealand really didn't like me saying I had a somewhat dull day; as while I slept I awoke to two earthquakes in the night! The first was a mere 4 on the Richter Scale (which if it happened anywhere else in the world it would be front page in the local press) but frightened the bejaysus out of me. I jumped under the table just in case but the whole room shook like a plane going through turbulence. By the way I don't think the duck and cover technique accounts for Ikea tables! The second one was a 5.5 so as it a logarithmic scale was 15 times stronger but I think it was also deeper. Now this was scary! The one that killed 168 people was 6.3! I sat under the table with the only saving grace being I was still half a sleep to really cop on to what was going on. I listened out for signs we needed to evacuate (an alarm was meant to go off) I just heard a few people talking so figured no need to panic. It only dawned on me after that the alarm mightn't be working and I could have got up and had a look around just in case. As you could imagine I didn't sleep much after that. I had internet connection so could see what size they were and read in the morning that 10,000 people were without electricity. On the road to the airport the next day there was signs of liquefaction where the soil loses it solidification and becomes a liquid spreading up across the roads. I think at this point I was glad to be going home!

What can I say to summarise New Zealand and Australia. I think in one word I would say 'extreme'. At first extremely far away... In Oz extreme animals, an extremely good stay in Rob and Lisa's and Sydney and an extremely good time at Gary's wedding and Melbourne. In New Zealand extremely extreme scenery with extreme beauty where you can do what extreme hobbies you like and it's land can sometimes be extremely dangerous. Most importantly the whole holiday was extremely enjoyable and I will cherish its memories forever although I am now looking forward to getting back to my extremely generous and loving wife.

Back to Christchurch

Well after a needed fry to ease the hangover I said goodbye to my travel companions Col and Mairead and got my bus to Christchurch. The journey was very dull in comparison to all the other bus journeys which was good as all I wanted to do was sleep. In Christchurch my plan was to get something to eat and then relax for the evening reading my book. Which is exactly what I did. Dull day really but suited me to the ground. Looking forward to getting home but not the journey!

New Years in Dunedin

We started the day getting a shuttle bus to our Taieri Gorge Crossing Train to Dunedin. After a while we realised the shuttle bus was going to take 3 and a half hours to get there so we relaxed and took in the scenery. Once again New Zealand surprised me with even more unusual scenery. This time it was a dry yellow grass landscape with huge angular rocks lying everywhere. We got dropped off in the middle of no where where our train arrived. The train was in an old carriage with open windows and we travelled over some serious deep gorges. Great stuff. By the time we got to Dunedin the scenery had changed again. This time it was much more like Ireland and you could see why so many Irish and Scottish had settled here.

I was well nervous that Dunedin would be a disaster for New Years after leaving party town Queenstown. It didn't start well when all the first few bars we went to where shut or were shit but in the end we found a Scottish bar with a bit of life and proceeded to get tanked up on beer and whiskey.

The fireworks were in the Octogon and they were directly above our heads which was great except for the hot ashes fallen on our skyward pointing faces. The end of the night is hazy enough but I do remember me and Col running down the steepest street in the world and being literally unable to stop till we got to the bottom.

If Dunedin had a cool scene once it seems to be well hidden now unless we just arrived at the wrong time. Still we had a great time and it was a good way to spend my last day with Col and Mairead.