Our road trip begins

Tuesday, December 2nd

All of us, minus Alfio, woke up at 7:20am to go for a run. Alfio did a long run the day the previous day, so he deserved to sleep in. Nilesh and I ran together since Steph and Bernice needed to go back before us. They were meeting their parent's friend for breakfast. Nilesh and I ran through the botanical garden. We got a bit lost at times, but it was all good since it was just a run. Christchurch is a beautiful quaint town. Very gothic buildings and beautiful gardens.

When I got back I quickly got ready, made a few calls to figure out my insurance, and then went to fix up the final bookings of our tour. This insurance thing is annoying. It's so hard to tell which one is good and affordable. I'm sure lots of agents are just trying to trick me into a crappy plan. Anyhow, with the time difference I have to wait till the next day to do it.

After we finalized all tours and picked up our car, we went back to the food hall for some lunch. I got Khmer hot and spicy noodles this time. The others got dim sum.

We began our road trip by taking a drive to the hills of Christchurch, a place where we can have an awesome view of Christchurch. We didn't realize how big it is, we barely made a dent in it by hanging around the cathedral square.

Alfio was a great driver. It took him the standard 10 mins to get acquainted with driving on the wrong side of the road. I also didn't get car sick at all, despite the windy road. The drive through the mountains reminded me a lot of Norway, except in Norway everything is covered with snow and New Zealand is covered in green. It's exactly like Lord of the Rings.

With the luxury of having a car, we could stop off at any point we wanted. For instance we stopped by a lake for some quick photos. It was very picturesque and lovely. The next place we headed was Arthur's pass drive. A beautiful national park area that reminded Nilesh of a chia pet because it was so green and lush. Too bad the rain hit us again and we couldn't do a hike. We are unlucky with the weather.

By the tourist info desk at Arthur's pass, we stopped at the bar across the street for some lunch. They weren't really serving anything besides pizza and fries. We ordered two pizzas, which was more than enough to fill us up until we got to greymouth, our final destination. At Arthur's pass Stephanie got an email from Neptune hostel that the magic bus has come and go, but you weren't there. Steph quickly responded that we decided to drive instead. Nilesh thought it was funny to comment that the hostel might of sold our room because we were late. No he didn't jinx us...or did he?

When people told us there was nothing in Greymouth, they weren't kidding. There was absolutely nothing to do there. It's farmland with industrial warehouses. There was a supermarket where we stopped off for some snacks and food for dinner. We decided to make tacos and Greek salad.

When we rolled up to Neptune hostel, a lady greeted us asking if we were the party of 5 for Stephanie. Yes mam. Unfortunately, we sold your room to another party of 5. Steph's response was, but I emailed you straight away when you asked. Her response, we already sold your room. F---! She showed us some other rooms, like 3 girls in a double, and 2 boys in a double (head to toe sharing). It was best to check out some other places. According to lonely planet, global village was their top pick. Lucky for us they had a 6 person dorm room that we could book. We drove to check it out and quickly we fell in love.

Global village had plants in toilet bowls outside. The way lonely planet described it was a fusion between african and asian. Lots of wooden wall plaques. The room was also well thought out, spacious with comfortable mattresses. We were all very content with it and it only cost NZD23 ($12) a night.

Our bellies were quite full from the late afternoon pizza, but always room for wine. We chatted about life while drinking our two bottles of wine. At 8:30pm, we started making our taco and greek salad since the kitchen closed at 9:30pm. Our taco and salad was a group effort and it was delicious. Nice and simple, relatively healthy.

After dinner we just chatted in bed. None of us were really tired. One of the funny discussions was what color goes with what skin tone. Nilesh said Indians (he is Indian) can't wear red because they'll just look like a brick. I won't wear certain tones of yellow and green because it makes me look pale. By then it was nighty night.