Christchurch – Week 1

Monday

Got up at some ungodly hour to drive to the airport, then got hungry enough to eat a stodgy over-priced airport sandwich. Had “breakfast” on the plane, then somehow missed lunch as it was mid-afternoon by the time I got through customs. Ready for bed early even though I had an extra 2 hours up my sleeve.

Tuesday

Hired a decrepit hybrid MTB from Dad’s local bike shop (a one-man outfit on a street corner in the middle of a suburb). Took it home in the back of the car, pumped up the tyres, adjusted the seat height, and took it for a spin along the river. My parents live close to the Avon River, so followed the river upstream as it wound through the city and through Hagley Park, until I found myself in the middle of some school grounds. Whoops! Backtracked, took a shortcut back through the park, and followed the river back home again.

13.0 km
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/2162735


Sore arse. Swapped the unpadded seat for Dad’s old one – a lovely big wide squishy number.

Wednesday

Walked into town with Mum and went Shopping! I love the tramping/outdoors shops in NZ – they have so much cool stuff. Restrained myself though, and bought a couple of merino tee-shirts from Kathmandu and a leather wallet from Ballantynes. Mum outdid me and bought a pair of Asics trail shoes.

Probably about 6 km.

Cycled up to the local shopping mall to get some personal stuff, and came home along the river. Big squishy old-man bike seat is lovely!

10.9 km
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=747218



Thursday

Tramping with Dad. We’d planned to walk through Montgomery Park Reserve in the Port Hills, and through to Mt Sinclair, but we hadn’t planned on pea-soup FOG!

Walking up through the Reserve was okay, albeit steep and slippery. But when we got to the top of the Reserve, we could barely see the trail markers in the low cloud. We’d left the map in the car (clever) so relied on Dad’s memory of where to go. Turn right at the top and walk up to a boulder knoll.

Visibility was down to about 5m, but eventually we found a trail of yellow markers leading down through some farmland. At one point, it was so foggy that Dad followed a fenceline and I followed an old farm track (keeping in sight of each other – with difficulty), looking for more yellow markers. A few minutes later, we gave up and headed back to the bounder knoll. After a quick stop on a ridge for sustenance, we walked back down through the Reserve.

6.7 km (518m elevation)
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/2162916

We then drove around the road to the end of the trail where we’d hoped to come out, had lunch, then headed back in. By this time the cloud had lifted, and we followed farm trails to the lower edge of Mt Sinclair where we stopped for a breather and some photos.

On the way back, Dad wanted to check out where we’d gone wrong in the morning. I had the GPS in tow, and took waypoints at various locations. About halfway back, we were heading towards a 4-way fence intersection and a low stile, when I suddenly recognised the fence corner – it was where Dad had stopped in the fog in the morning. In the clearer light, we could see the yellow markers heading back up through the farmland to the bounder knoll. We’d been *that* close! But with no yellow markers and no visibility, there was no way we would have known to cross 3 fences and head off in a different direction.

6.5 km (296m elevation)
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/2162917



Friday

Drive to Geraldine to spend the day with my favourite cousin – who is currently living in a caravan on her property while she waits for the local council to get their act together and stamp her building approval. She’s building a rammed-earth house, which should be interesting to watch.

Saturday

Walk into town with Mum and Dad to the Arts Centre craft market. Then walked to the muesum to see two portraits of my great great somethings which have recently been donated to the city. These massive paintings were given to the couple as a wedding gift in 18?? – imagine having a 2x3m painting of yourself hanging in the living room, lol.

Then walked through the Botanic Gardens to a new seat on the family lawn, where we all posed for photos.

Yep, my family is quite famous in Christchurch! Great great grandad was Mayor of Chch (twice), and Premier of NZ. No one else has shown any interest in politics since.

Approx 10 kms

Sunday

Walk to the local shopping mall with Mum, approx 5 kms return. Family commitments in the afternoon – got hot, bored, and ate too much.