Christchurch 3 - Revisiting Locations

One the 7th of September - amazing how time can go by so fast - I picked up Jo and Lisa, two of the girls I had met in the Rotorua hostel. We had found a deal on bookme.com to go BloKarting for half an hour. It was so much fun! The wind was pretty strong that day and we reached up to 25 km/h with one guy actually tipping over. In contrast to that I actually got stuck right in the very first corner because I had turned against the wind and couldn't get going again. Embarassing...

Jo (American), me, Lisa (Dutch)

Far too soon the time was over and we spent the afternoon at Riccarton mall and in the evening I sang to Tim, my host father, playing the piano.
The next day Jo drove the two of us (Lisa had had to return to her job) to Kaikoura. The road was severely damaged by the last earthquakes and also in town there were a few empty spots where there had been houses before. Fortunately the nice Paua Shop was still there and we had a little cruise around.
At 1.45pm we went to the briefing and then boarded the boat for our Whale Watching Experience. We were very lucky that day. In 2,5 hours we saw three whales whereas they had sighted none at all in the whole last week. The Sperm Whale was just floating there and didn't care about us at all. To be honest, other than his dive after approximately 10 minutes rest it was a little boring. Then they are gone in the depths of the ocean for about 1 hour. I'm glad that I got to see them but I definitely preferred swimming with dolphins, they are much more curious and playful.

That's pretty much all you see of the giant Sperm Whale...

An albatross taking flight

After all this excitement and the long journey back I spent another evening with Theo in a bar after the three little girls had gone to sleep. We couldn't stay out long though because the next morning the Mitchells took me to Hanmer Springs. First we had lunch and after that hiked up Conical Hill. I remembered I had been up here before! Then of course the a visit to the lolly shop, the girls' main destination. Mine were the hot pools and while the others stayed in the moderate area I soon left for the warmest pool (42°C). It could even have been a little warmer...

We passed Frog Rock on our way.

The view from Conical Hill on a nice spring day.

In the evening I spontaneously decided that I haven't been dancing in far too long and Tim gladly joined me. We were one of only five couples at the school hall and they didn't even play a Viennese waltz because apparently it was too difficult for the dancers. I taught Tim some new steps and he showed me a few figures and it was fun but I missed the ease I usually felt with Pascal, my German dancing partner. Nevertheless I think we both enjoyed being back on the dancefloor again.

Although feeling slightly sick the next day I left for Riccarton market in the morning while the others went to church. Using all my cash I bought a couple of nice handmade things and even a replica of the One Ring for only 10 NZD! After this success I met with my family and we went to see "Toruk - The First Flight" by Cirque du Soleil in the Horncastle Arena. It was fantastic! Unfortunately the interactive App didn't work for me but I still enjoyed all the beautiful costumes, breathtaking stunts and amazing light show.
To complete the day Theo and I had another singing lesson with Ravil, singing "All I ask of you" again. I wish we could have made a good recording of it to compare with the earlier versions but by then I was feeling really unwell and you could hear that in my voice. It only got worse the next day and I decided to stay a day longer than planned for I was in no constitution to drive. Instead I slept a lot and played games with the girls. Also nice.