Our last full day on the tour we went to an old Chinese settlement.  It was from the gold rush days. Apparently the Chinese were allowed to come over and mine, but only mine claims that had already been mined.  They weren’t allowed to live in the English settlements so they created their own settlement.   After that we went to ride bikes on the Otago Central Rail Trail.  It was a nice, easy, pretty ride on the trail of an old railroad.  The tracks are gone.  We only did a 2 hour section.  The overall trail is longer.  We stayed in a tiny town with an old hotel.  Most of the group was very unhappy with this.  They made us sit outside for dinner since the bar was crowded with other guests and townspeople.  Some of the people were talked to or treated like they were teenagers or second class citizens.  I didn’t experience this, but that’s what they were talking about.  The dinner wasn’t very good.  Most of the group was upset that our last dinner together and was so disappointing.

 

Our last day we went back to Christchurch. On the way we stopped to see Moeraki Boulders, large round rocks on the beach.  They were pretty cool.  I can’t quite explain them so if you want more info, see this:  http://www.moerakiboulders.com/

A lot of people on the bus were sick, theory that it was the horrible dinner from the night before.  I was glad I had chosen the vegetarian option.  We got to the ghost town, I mean Christchurch early evening.  Since the tour was over for me, I stayed at an airbnb.  It was luxury to have my own room with a double bed!  I got a bus back downtown and went out to dinner with a couple of the people from the tour.  We walked around the deserted ghost town of Christchurch.  At one point we heard music coming from a small alley.  We walked into the alley and it opened up into a courtyard with 4 or 5 restaurants and some live music.  Since we had already eaten, we walked through the alley coming out the other side into the ghost town again.  I wonder if all the people of Christchurch are hanging out in tiny hidden alleys all over the city.

I left way too early in the morning for my flight back to Auckland.  I just wanted to stay in that comfortable bed for another few hours.  Joel picked me up from the airport.  We found a place to picnic for dinner, wandered around town, shopped for food and checked me into the new airbnb.  Another night with a double bed in a room of my own – Aaaahhhhhh.  For New Year’s Eve we had a picnic with a couple people from the tour, watched a comedy show and then watched fireworks at midnight.  It was a very pleasant New Years Eve.

Today was a chill day of working and doing laundry.  Went to dinner and wandered around Devonport and Silo Park in Auckland.

(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore