The Wandering Chocoholic

It’s the end of the road for me here in NZ. With less than 24 hours until I fly to Australia, I’m both excited and a bit sad to be leaving this beautiful country behind. This past month has been a real ride, and who knows when I’ll get a chance to come back here?

Christchurch is a much quieter city than most of New Zealand, and my last few days have been pretty tame as well. On Friday, I visited the Botanical Gardens in the afternoon, before heading out for a big goodbye dinner with most of the Magic group I’ve been travelling around with for the past couple of weeks. We’ve all gone our separate ways, which in true backpacking tradition meant that of course I’ve randomly met up with a number of them yesterday and today. A good rule of thumb on the road is never piss anyone off, cause you never know where you’ll run into them again.

Yesterday, I took a daytrip to Akaroa, on the Banks Peninsula. Akaroa is famous for being the only spot in New Zealand first settled by the French, which of course meant that the French settled there… and promptly surrendered to the British. (It’s true – look it up). All the street names are still in French, but none of the locals can pronounce them.

Today is Sunday, which means an awful lot of things in Christchurch are closed. This morning I headed to the Arts Centre, a huge complex of galleries and craft shops located in a former college campus. Every weekend there’s a big outdoor market, with musicians and food stands and local artists selling their crafts. The highlight of the Arts Centre is, without a doubt, the Fudge Shoppe. They offer tours of how the fudge is made, and lots of free samples to taste. Afterwards, I visited the Canterbury Museum, and then the Christchurch Art Gallery. I think I’ve seen enough New Zealand art for quite some time.

Now that my time here is almost over, I must say that this is an amazing country, but with some odd quirks. For instance:

• Not only do they drive on the wrong side of the road, but a whole bunch of other things are backwards, too. For instance, the light switches flick down to turn on, and up to turn off the lights.
• Coffee is more expensive than beer here. A basic cup of filter coffee will run about $3 to $4. Beer, on the other hand, is usually available for next to nothing, thanks to all the backpacker bars running specials.
• In most places, an awful lot closes down fairly early and on Sundays. I’ve heard people describe it as “the UK, 30 years ago”.
• New Zealanders feel about Australians kind of how we Canadians feel about Americans. That is, they watch Australian TV, listen to Australian music, and pretty much adopt Australian culture, but their favourite pastime is mocking the Aussies. And don’t ever mistake a Kiwi for an Aussie; it’s considered a grave insult.
• Once upon a time, there were no animals in NZ other than birds. Because of this, NZ’s birds, through evolution, gave up their ability to fly. That’s why so many of the local birds, including the kiwi, are flightless. Not too smart, if you ask me.
• Speaking of wildlife, one of the greatest things you can do to protect the local wildlife and ecosystem is to… run over a possum with your car. Possums are vilified here because they were artificially introduced into the country and, due to a lack of predators, they multiplied like crazy and are destroying the environment. Shops everywhere sell anything from earmuffs to golf club covers made out of possum fur, and you’ll frequently hear NZers say that the “only good possum is a dead possum”.
• If there are 10 times as many sheep as people in New Zealand, and if Cadbury manufactures 10 times as many chocolate easter eggs as there are people in New Zealand, does that mean that there’s one easter egg per sheep?

Next update from the land of OZ.