Christchurch is our last stop in NZ, and has been driving me crazy because every time I see it written down I want to 'correct' it - lazy student journalists were forever getting 'Christ Church' wrong. Fortunately it's pretty hard to graffiti a space into a written word so I've restrained myself.
We got into Chch on Friday evening, had dinner in a Mexican cafe whose decor was better than its food, and did a little tour of the local bar scene. It has an enjoyable district of alleys and squares which are mainly composed of bars (with a few boutiquey shops thrown in - Lilly makes audible mental notes as we pass) - Sol Square and Lichfield Lanes. A few have live music, but mostly not starting until midnight - clearly a late-night spot, but there's no sign of any residential buildings in the vicinity, so why not? One notable mainly for its daft nature is Cleaners, which used to be a lunch room for cleaners at a local factory. We walked in here to see a NZ v Aus Twenty20 match nearing its conclusion on TV. The barman followed our gaze and said "Don't bother, mate" - the home side were being taken to, figuratively, the very bar we were in. This will be relevant later...
On Saturday we explored central Chch - Lilly took us back to the previous night's environs to shop and take photos of some of the more interesting bar exteriors (special prizes to Mac's Brewpub's painted sign and the building with bicycles 'riding' up its wall).
The centre of town is marked by a cathedral - we didn't go properly inside because there was an overpriced flower festival, but in the vestibule we saw the Ch Ch, Oxford crest.
We watched the old trams roll past - and occasionally through - buildings, walked along Spanish-style streets, followed a river full of punts (which fittingly lies between Oxford and Cambridge Terraces) and made our way round to the Arts Centre. This is a former university, a lovely old heavy-brick Victorian university that has been converted into art galleries, workshops, boutiques and market, a theatre, cinema and a microbrewery. Lovely place. The city's art gallery was a little disappointing by comparison.
A fun outdoor installation at the former university
That night we had arranged to meet some old friends from Sky for dinner. Matthew and Olivia managed 18 months in London before wisely heading back to NZ - and when we saw their lovely home here and compared it to London we were surprised they lasted as long as they did! They also generously* put us up for 4 nights, and it was lovely to actually be in a house again.
* All the more generous since they were also hosting a Sky survivor, Chris, for 3 nights. Chris is in NZ for a wedding, but our timing here is not a coincidence (except in the most literal sense) as I shall explain below...
They proposed dinner at the Bicycle Thief, a restaurant they had heard good things about. (Probably another Oxford connection since this is the occupation of quite a few Oxford residents, as the several bikes I owned in my time there would attest.) This was handy, as it was directly below the room we had stayed in the previous night and 100 yards from our car parking space, so naturally we agreed.
Sadly the shops close at 5 and dinner was at 7 so we had no choice but to check out the two best micro-breweries in town (as recommended by Matthew, who doesn't really go in for that sort of thing but correctly surmised that I might). Funnily enough we had walked past both the previous night... Anyway, I must recommend the unpromisingly-named Red Barnet at Yellow Cross as the best beer in NZ, against decent competition. I might as well go ahead and name it as the best in Australasia... no, that would be unfair.*
* Edit post-Australia: no, that was completely fair.
We were first to the restaurant and Matthew's booking was news to the staff there - I wondered if he had booked using a 'nom de virtuel', or perhaps was aggrieved at having to sit next to me and put up with my jokes for 18 months and had played a prank - but fortunately we had not been set up, Matthew and Olivia did arrive, and the missing booking seemed to be a problem not unique to us and they managed to fit us in. A jolly good catch-up ensued.
On Sunday we were pleased to get chance to relax and do nothing pending Chris' arrival. In the evening was the reason for our confluence - the second and final Twenty20 was in Chch. On looking at fixtures while working out when to visit Chch, I asked Matthew if he fancied a one-dayer against Bangladesh. "We could do that," he said, "or we could go to one of the best rivalries in world cricket." I was convinced.
This turned out to be an excellent decision. The stadium is nothing to write home about, its alcohol policy is frustrating (each person at the bar can buy a max of 2 x 375ml beers per visit), and disappointingly it wasn't full. But consider the positives - the weather was scorching, we had terrific seats behind the bowler's arm, there were a lot of vocal locals at the far end (and a good few Aussies in the crowd to take abuse), and the match was a minor classic. Brendon McCullum hit the second highest score in international T20s, a brilliant 120* with six 'McScoop' boundaries (a variant on Dilshan's famous periscope shot). A favourite moment came as an Australian slid to field the ball on the boundary and flicked the ball up to another fielder to throw in. It bounced off him and over the rope. (I'd quite like to know if this counted as 4 overthrows.)
(McCullum later won the ICC Twenty20 International Performance of the Year for this innings.)
Australia were well behind the rate until an uncharacteristically expensive spell from Daniel Vettori* and an apparantly past-it Jacob Oram let them back in. Young Tim Southee came back from two expensive overs to concede only 5 from the 18th and was rewarded with the final over with 12 needed. He did well again, leaving 3 needed to win off the last ball. Despite a fumble on the boundary, Michael Clarke and Cameron White could only run 2. Tie! And Super Over! Fantastic stuff.
* In his wire-frame glasses, beard and especially when wearing a cap, Vettori is not the worst ever sporting lookalike for me. While in Queenstown we enjoyed seeing him in a TV advert in which we starts to eat something resembling a Fergburger. Fortunately he has taken the only sensible option and, with both of us in the same stadium, shaved off his beard. Nice one Dan, saved a lot of confusion.
Australia made the mistake of changing batsmen, Southee was given the over ahead of Bond and Vettori, and he was brilliant, taking 1-6. Shaun Tait bottled his difficult chance, bowling 2 wides, and NZ won with 3 balls to spare - 50% of the Super Over, a huge margin. Brilliant game, great atmosphere.
On Monday our genial hosts took the day off and - after a short delay watching the Olympic Ice Hockey final - we headed for Akaroa, a picturesque bay in an old volcanic crater. The views of it from the crater road are great. The views from the air out to sea - sadly seen on posters and postcards rather than in real life - are unbelievable.
Okay, this is a cheat - it's not actually Akaroa, it's a nice bit of coast as taken from the plane. This is Akaroa - pretty amazing.
On Tuesday Lilly and I came back here, via unexciting Lyttleton and a windy lunch overlooking Governor's Bay - the waitress brought us a little tray of salt and pepper but we thought it best to send them back to avoid being covered... The view was worth it (everyone else sitting inside presumably disagreed).
The reason we came back was to swim with dolphins - well, Lilly did while I watched from the boat. And we were rewarded first with a bright blue sky and sunshine, which we missed the previous day and made Akaroa even more lovely. And second with dolphins. Hector's dolphins, the smallest dolphins in the ocean.
We came in the afternoon and most of them had left the bay, though we saw a couple swimming past, so we headed out to sea. (The previous boat had failed to swim, though a guy with a very expensive camera showed me a couple of amazing shots of dolphins mid-leap. Once I got out on that boat, which felt more like a bucking bronco at times, I have no idea how he had managed to take them, expensive camera or no.)
We found 2 pods of dolphins. The first time, the wetsuit brigade lowered themselves off the back of the boat, led by Lilly. They bobbed up and down in the water, bouyed by air in their rubber booties and equipped with snorkels and masks so that they could get a view underwater and (believe it or not) sing through the snorkel to attract dolphins via vibrations in the water. Lilly's waterproof camera broke earlier in NZ (it, er, leaked water) but Fuji had taken it for repair and replaced it just in time.
While I tried to take photos of a bobbing Lilly and speeding dolphins from a bobbing boat, Lilly was very excited as four dolphins swam at her and flashed past. Sadly they didn't stick around and play. We had a few decent sightings and Lilly really enjoyed it, before eventually being summoned back to the boat.
We found one more large pod, and got a decent look, but they had a calf with them so no swimming was allowed.
The tour company decided to classify this as a "no swim" because the dolphins weren't in a playful mood, so we got a partial refund - I guess they have have standards, as Lilly really enjoyed it and had no complaints. I don't think anyone was expecting a refund. It was a good afternoon out and a nice way to end our time in New Zealand.
Also in Akaroa: the inverted swimming pool
Thanks again to Olivia and Matthew for being such excellent hosts, organising cricket, feeding us etc. Hope to see you in September!
No comments:
Post a Comment