Day 103: Christchurch 0 Day

Sunday, March 12

Today was a nice and relaxing day. It never stopped raining so I didn't do much sightseeing, but I ran some errands and blogged.

Checkout at the hostel was at 10 am, so after waking up I made a nice breakfast (buttered toast with salted avocado and eggs), read some news articles and packed my backpack. Then I headed over to the smaller YHA hostel, about a 5 minute walk around the block, to drop off my backpack and groceries. As soon as I got there I realized I left my popsicles in the freezer, so I ran back and got them.

It was still raining and the forecast said it would persist all day, so I decided I'd spend most of the day at a coffee shop and the hostel writing blog posts. Online I read that a good coffee shop was C-1 Espresso, so I headed there. It was only about a 15 minute walk. As I walked through town I still found it hard to believe how much damage was done by the earthquake six years ago. There's so much beautiful public art in Christchurch and I really like the town, but in the CBD pedestrians need to switch sides of the road every few blocks because one side will be under construction. There seems to be anywhere from 1 to 4 construction projects happening on each block.

C-1 Espresso was packed but I spotted an open table. The restarting was so neat, I decided to stay. Maybe it was an old bank because tubes that reminded me of the ones you place bank items in ran all around the place. There were huge globe lights and a moving door that looked like a bookshelf that opened to the bathroom.

I ordered a pot of tea and a savory muffin. They brought it out to me when it was ready. I wrote a few blogs and happily drank my tea. Eventually it got so crowded I moved to a table with some other people so that a family could fit at the table my solo self was taking up. It was starting to get too crowded for me so I decided to run a few errands. The post office had to wait until tomorrow but I could find a hiking pole to replace the one I bent in the Richmond Range.

Before leaving I stopped in the bathroom. The doors had Star Wars action figure on them - Leia for women, Han Solo for men, R2D2 for handicap and Chewbacca. It was great. They were playing a Harry Potter audio book over the sound system too. It was a good idea! Mellow music in the cafe and audio books in the bathroom.

There wasn't a Bivouac downtown (I think it was ruined in the earthquake 6 years ago because google maps thought there was one downtown), so I stopped at Kathmandu. Their cheapest hiking pole was $70 so I walked to Macpac. The downtown location didn't carry hiking poles, but one a bus ride away did and it would cost $40 (plus 30% off that if I gave them my email). I knew I wouldn't find one cheaper than that at Bivouac because I had to go through checking hiking pole prices in Hamilton last time I broke one.

I walked to the downtown bus terminal. It was the fanciest transportation center I've been to anywhere in the world. The people at the information desk said three bus lines would take me where I needed to go and one was arriving in 2 minutes. When it pulled into the centre the speakers announced what door it would parking at. As I walked over I realized the buses pulled into covered spots and when they stopped and opened their bus doors glass sliding doors opened to let people enter and exit the bus. So fancy!

I got on the bus and hopped off at the mall. It didn't take me long to find the hiking pole, which ended up costing less than $30 NZD. I also bought another headphone to lighting adapter because mine has been acting up. I probably don't quite need one yet, but they barely weigh anything and I can tell I'll need one soon. It'll be good to be ready when the one I have goes bad.

After all my errands were finished I got an Oreo milkshake and decided I'd walk back to the hostel. It had yet to stop raining today, but it was only a 25 minute walk back and half of it was through the park and botanical gardens. I'd like to explore the park better in sunny weather, but it was a nice walk despite the rain.

I made it to the hostel about 15 minutes before check in time, but they said it was ok. Besides eating dinner, the rest of the day was spent writing and getting caught up on blog posts. It made me a little glad the weather was bad because I wasn't wasting a good day inside. I went to bed around 1 or 2 am.

C-Espresso

Leia on the women's bathroom

The bus transportation center in Christchurch

A park I walked through on my way from the mall to the hostel.