Arthur's Pass and Christchurch mark 2 - improvisation and boning

We reluctantly left our rainforest campsite to head back over the Southern Alps - over Arthur's Pass - and back to Christchurch to change our 4X4 car for a normal one (a bit cheaper). Arthur's pass is a famously picturesque mountain drive and we'd been looking forward to it for ages. The weather wasn't really on our side though and much of the drive - like Milford Sound - was in cloud, although what was left over was pretty lovely anyway!



I think the highlight of the journey for both of us was passing through Springfield and seeing a giant donut a la Simpsons by the side of the road, and then coming across a field of Ostriches. They are bloody massive and pretty scary!



So we swapped our spaceship "Spock" for another, "Mork" and checked into a campsite. We got chatting to a Canadian couple, Matt and Mary who invited us to join them in going to an improvisation night (like "Who's Line is it Anyway?") which we jumped at. After wetting our whistles with a few glasses of red wine, we had a really good laugh at the theatre and the evening was made even more special by some bloke proposing to his girlfriend live on stage (he set it up with the show's host). Not surprisingly she was very embarrassed but to our relief said yes! It was also lovely to meet up with some really nice people and go out on the town for a change.

The next morning we opted for a bit of culture, although Kieran's hangover spoiled it somewhat for him. We went to see "the bone dude" and hand carved our own traditional Maori bone pendant. It was actually pretty easy but really fun and the bone dude, John, was a patient and funny instructor. We both came away with really lovely necklaces and a sense of exercising our creative craft juices.



The afternoon saw us in the Antacrtic centre, cooing at little blue penguins and trying out their antarctic room which is kept at a constant minus 8 degrees with snow and ice. To be honest it felt pretty similar to temperatures in Queenstown but then once an hour they dim the lights, ramp up the "wind" and simulate blizzard conditions (without the snowstorm though). The wind chill factor takes it down to about minus 18 which is bloody freezing and although we lasted the full 5 minutes we were glad to get the hell out of there!

I've got a very cold nose


We finished up by going to a cinema and seeing a really funny NZ film - Eagle Vs Shark - about 2 geeks falling in love. Despite the sprawling nature of Christchurch, it has a lovely relaxed feel to it and we had a good little relax while we were there.