Dunedin, Christchurch, Blenheim, and Nelson (again)

I walked up the steepest street in the world. It's so steep that cars can't park on it and walking up it was just as hard as Ben Lomond's peak. It took me forever to find it too, I walked around for about two hours. Then I was walking up when I saw a guy coming towards me. This French guy introduced himself to me, and we decided we would walk up together. He told me that he wanted to drive up but he didn't think his little ford fiesta or whatever, would make it. We walked down and then decided that we should try and drive up. It was like the little engine that could. Going down was scarier though, I though the brakes were going to go out. Thank god I met him because he gave me a ride back to my hostel and I really didn't want to walk all the way back.

The next day I left Dunedin and headed to Christchurch (I've never heard a more Christian name for a city). On the way I met the oldest traveler so far. She was an 80 year old retired school teacher from Missouri. Although I haven't met too many Americans, there is a much wider spectrum of them, if that makes sense. The youngest traveler I met was 17 (American), and now the oldest was American as well.

I immediately liked Christchurch, I'm not sure why. The city is pretty, green, and there are a lot of sights to see. It might have helped that the weather was beautiful. A beautiful river cuts through the city on which you can kayak, canoe, or be awkwardly paddled along in a gondola.

Since I only had a day there (or so I thought), I didn't do much. I went to the farmers market and just enjoyed the day before my bus ride at 2 pm. I went to wait for the bus, where I met another backpacker named Marina from Germany. She was on her way to Blenheim to get a job at a vineyard. We were both waiting for the naked bus, but neither of us had been on it before...we waited and waited. 2pm rolled by, 2:15, finally at around 2:30 we went to the information centre and asked where our bus was. Of course we missed it. But we didn't understand! We were standing right there, how could we miss an entire bus? Then we find out that naked bus buys tickets from southern link, which is the actual bus company, and sells tickets for cheap. Thanks a lot naked bus for telling us that important fact. I was so mad, but there was nothing we could do. So we bought tickets for the next day and went back to the hostel where Marina stayed the night before.

It turned out to be a bad bus day. First we miss our bus, then when Marina and I try to get on the free circuit bus to the supermarket, the bus driver closed the doors in our face and drove away! Then after we got on the next one, the hobo in the back kept burping and farting. Ugh. After that inconvenient day we both got up early to catch our 7 am bus. Ironically, there are many prostitutes in Christchurch, and they work long hours. I counted at least 5.

So I was on my way back to Nelson to meet my friend Jota at the Paradiso hostel. We had a stopover in Blenheim and Marina and I said our goodbyes. I get to Paradiso, and Jota says we have to go back to Blenheim because he needs to work in a Persian rug store for three days for his Pakistani boss and future hammock selling business partner. Makes sense. So we went back to Blenheim. At least I got to hang out with Marina for a couple more days.

So after helping sell rugs for a couple days, we are back in Nelson, at the Paradiso. I've just been hanging out, sleeping, and reading. A good life. Tomorrow Jota, the other Brazilians, and I will go to Abel Tasman again and camp for a night.