I’m gonna be real with you…I probably shouldn’t be writing this blog in the state that I am in. To say I am exhausted, frustrated, and angry is an understatement. But all you hear about are the good parts so I figure why not show the tantrums of the trip…the not so great parts.
Ok – so I’ll go back a couple of days. We left Queenstown and embarked on a 6.5 hr journey through the country back to Christchurch. Somehow the gods blessed us again and it poured the whole day (which…who cares if you are driving right??). We did manage to stop in Lake Tekapo and take a few requisite pictures by the Church of Good Shepard and show how insanely blue the water is. But essentially, it was freezing, we rushed through a disgusting meal and got back in the car so there you have it.
Then we got to Christchurch. And I gotta say, thank goodness we were barely there 48 hours. In Sept 2010 and then in February 2011 Christchurch was ROCKED by 2 crazy earthquakes which devastated the city and it’s clear they haven’t had the money to rebuild but I have NEVER been in a city that felt like such a ghost town before.
Imagine walking down a MAJOR street (big stores like H&M, restaurants, malls etc…) and it’s DESERTED. It was so weird that I stopped someone and asked where everyone is…like was it because it was Sunday and everyone is Catholic (kinda like what I experienced in South America on Sundays?) but no…it’s just no one comes into the CBD. But then how do these stores stay in business? Even on Monday during the day it was empty. We did have a whole day and half though so:
We hit up a crazy playground:
Then we hit up an indoor food market (Riverside Market)
Took a bunch of random pictures with various statues around the city
And then we did the best thing and spent almost 3 hours at Quake City (the museum) learning about the earthquake and Leo and I sat and watched 90 minutes of personal stories from people who survived the quakes (and many who’s loved ones didn’t). I cried..and he kept holding my hand to re-assure me :). Stella left after about 10 minutes and played with Leo for the next hour while Adam sat and kept her company.
I knew today would be a hard day with a 4:30am wake-up…a 3.5 hr flight to Brisbane, stop over, then another flight to Hervey Bay, and a 3 hour time difference. What I wasn’t prepared for was for myself and Leo to only sleep for about 3 hours of the night (no major reason…kids, they can’t sleep, they keep you up, vicious circle). So needless to say, I was prepared for a very exhausting day with lots of meltdowns (from myself included…) and the day did not disappoint. But just because you can’t take pictures of meltdowns…doesn’t it look like we are having the best time ever?
It’s all a lie…mere hrs before these pictures were taken everyone was screaming and hitting each other. But I still had to get documentation that we were here in Hervey Bay so there you have it.
Tomorrow morning we are getting on an 8am teeny tiny airplane to a teeny tiny island (apparently you can walk around it in 1 hr!) that is the southernmost tip of the Great Barrier Reef.
There is zero wifi, zero phones, all birds, turtles and snorkelling and very very basic accommodation (only 1 eco lodge on the island that allows only 70 people at a time). So needless to say it’s heaven for Adam and myself, like with the boat, I’m not sure how the kids will do (especially since Leo is terrified of snorkelling and that’s basically all there is to do on this island). We are there for 2 nights, you won’t hear from us. Wish me luck. (I know I sound like Debby downer, it’s 7pm here (10pm my body clock time) so I am going to bed and will hopefully wake up in a better space tomorrow.
Looking back on NZ…it was so full of activities every day, and Australia is much more of a lazy beach town vacation for 3 weeks that this is likely to feel like 2 completely different trips. I’ll get some sleep and re-orient. When you hear from me next I will be back to my grateful, happy self. For now…sleep.
Berlin Travel Blog 