Day 5 (May 18th)...trying to get to Christchurch

The beds in the hostel were amazing for a change so I had a lie in until about 10am or so. Amabel, the lady I hitched with yesterday has offered me a lift heading toward the West coast but I decide I’m going to do Christchurch next instead. I head out of town on the road for Christchurch and wait. And wait. And wait. Nobody is picking me up...perhaps because Hanmer could be quite a touristy area. That or I’m looking a bit strange today. Finally at about 3pm, hours after I stood on the road, the lovely Darryl picks me up. We get chatting and whatever happens soon he is telling me his whole personal life and the problems going with it, and I’m trying to counsel him and make things seem okay. He tells me he needs a nanny and any chance I need a job? We have  a good laugh and he drops me off at a bus stop ten minutes from Christchurch, gives me his card and tries to hide twenty bucks under it. I refuse to take his money and he ends up putting in a pocket of my bag – ‘treat yourself to a meal’, he says. Yet again, I am baffled at how people are so nice and I am so lucky!

I get off the bus in Christchurch and have no map and no idea where I am. There’s nothing really around so I go into the nearest shop and ask where the city centre is. I immediately regret this as I see the sadness that has come over the shop assistants face. ‘Well, this was the city centre, but it’s kind of all scattered around now’. The Christchurch earthquakes of 2010 and 2011 devastated the city and claimed the lives of 182 people. I’m only seeing the effect of it first hand now. However, despite my ignorance, the lady is lovely, learns I am going to the Jailhouse Backpacker (thanks Peter for the recommendation) and gets her friend who is leaving work and driving by to drive me there! SCORE! The Jailhouse is expensive at 32 dollars a night for a 10 bed dorm without ensuite. However, it is an awesome place, with some of the cells still in tact from when it closed in 1999. It is also in the suburb of Addington, which since the quakes, is becoming a new entertainment hub of Christchurch. So there is plenty of offer for tonight, especially since a rugby game is on down the road between the Crusaders and Blues. On arrival in my dorm I meet Liam from the UK, who seems mad to get out ‘on the town’. Despite a rather uneventful day, I am knackered! But he makes me dinner and persuades me to go out. We get ready, join the rest of the girls from our dorm and hit Cargo Bar across the road. It was heaving and an awesome night was had! 

 The View hitching from Hanmer Springs

 One of the cells in the Jail

 Time for a boogie