Day 61 - Busy Day and Night in Christchurch (Sat 8th Jan)

After a long night of watching 'How I Met Your Mother', Chaggie woke at 11:30 this morning, a nice lay-in. We had a brunch with the Woods and planned what to do for the day. Giles and Liz were very kind to offer a lift to 'Castle Hills' where we could check out a popular cave. With this in mind, Chris and Chaggie made sure they were wearing warm, old clothes. Chino and Chris were lucky to get a wet suit, Staggie was left with his shorts.

We left after lunch and got belted up ready for the journey to 'Castle Hills'. It was an hour and a half long scenic route along 'Arthurs Pass' to get us there. As we got close by Chaggie realised how similar the setting was to that used in one of the scenes in 'Lord Of The Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring'. Well infact it was used for some of the filming, this part was used in the scene where the fellowship hide from the flying 'spies' of Mordor (I think that's right anyway!) Quite an amazing place!

Once we arrived, we got our wet suits on (well Chris and Chino did) and made sure we had a torch each. We were at the 'Cave Stream Scenic Reserve' and made our way down some steep paths to get to the Entrance of it . The cave passage meanders and twists in pitch darkness for 362 metres between the two entrances. We entered at the outlet end of the cave and walked against the flow of the stream.We managed to make our way through to the exit having to climb over rocks and waterfalls in about half an hour. We got out of our wet suits and went and found Giles and Liz by the car.

On the way back to Christchurch this afternoon, we stopped off at an Ice Cream Shop to have some 'Tip Top' Ice Cream (bloody good Ice Cream!). We got back to their home at around 18:00, we showered and got ready for a night out. We had dinner to start with, Liz cooked us a fantastic Mediterranean Chicken meal! Whilst the rest of us had pudding, Chris went to pick up his friend Josh for tonight's trip to town. They soon arrived, we were all lucky enough to get a lift from Liz this evening too.

Firstly the four of us went to play some pool, we had a few rounds of pool with a few rounds of beer. After about an hour we hit another pub and had a couple of rounds there, before making a move to a club/bar (one thing we've found with New Zealand is that there are hardly any clubs, not like England at all). This evenings choice of club/bar was alright though, was very busy. Only problem was the price! After one round of beer and one round of shots, Chino had spent $70.

Was a cracking night out, we ended up leaving the club at 02:00 and moving onto another one (this one was a lot better!). At around 04:00 we made our way to the town centre where we got a KFC. What was weird about this trip to town was walking past demolished buildings, there was a lot of damage still untouched almost since the huge Earthquake struck Christchurch on the 4th September. Was pretty cool!

We caught a taxi to one of Chris's mates houses on the way home, just so Josh could pick up some stuff. We made it back inside the Wood home at around 05:00, we chilled out nicely over an episode of 'How I Met Your Mother'. Although as soon as Chaggie fell to the sofa, they were out of it. Staggie did plan to stay up and watch the Newcastle game against 'Stevenage', the next thing the 4 of us remember is being woken up by Giles at 06:00. Bed time.

A quality night out in Christchurch. One to certainly remember...Just.

Chaggie x