3/22 - Christchurch and Jailhouse

The first part of the day consisted of a long drive up to Christchurch. The land here is mostly sheep pastures, which while interesting from a land use history point of view, is not terribly exciting to drive through. Though there was one really beautiful view of Mt. Cook in the distance.

Arriving in Christchurch I needed to check into my hostel, then rush to the airport to return the car in time. It wasn't particularly good timing on my part, but I was able to return the car on time (with about 15 minutes to spare) and get into the hostel, so dropping off the car, I decided to walk back to the hostel since I hadn't had much physical activity for the day. It was about a 9 km trip, but I thought it would give me the chance to see a little of Christchurch, which had been damaged by several large earthquakes in the past six months. Walking through the suburbs I didn't really see much damage, just several brick walls that had collapsed. In all, it was a nice, much needed walk, allowing me to decompress from a day of driving.

I decided to try to save some money on food, as well as to use up some of the food I had left from the road, and so needed to walk to the grocery. This meant another rather long hike - about 6 km return. When I returned, I was tired and hungry, but in good spirits.

After cooking a meal of grilled cheese and stir-fry greens, I (finally) settled in to being in the hostel. Unfortunately, my flight was early the next morning, and I needed to go to bed soon. It was a nice hostel, built in an old jailhouse. The rooms were the old cells where the prisoners were kept. And they even had one that hadn't been renovated. The artwork on the walls was quite interesting and provocative.

After eating and doing Internet for a bit, I was more than ready for bed, and was excited to head off to Australia.