After discovering the QEII was a leisure centre (Jane being blonde) we decided to head to the Christchurch Gondola which is like a cable car up a hill. We get there and I thought it would be more fun to walk up as opposed to paying $40 for the pleasure of getting a lift. I am glad we did walk up because the views were worth every penny saved!!
We walked up a steep path and it came to a junction either we go left which would carry on up the steep path or we would turn right and the path would not be as steep but muddy, and yep you guessed it the mud one!
The route we took was only meant to take 30 minutes and two hours later we make it to the top, christ knows who could do it in 30 minutes. I was ahead of Jane by about a week she was taking every step very carefully and calculated (slow) I was strolling up at a normal speed waiting every few minutes for her majesty to catch up with me. When we got to the top of the Mountains the views were very nice and just stopped for about ten minutes watching the world go by.
We had to make a decision as to what route we should take back down to the car park I didn’t fancy going the road route as it looked boring and so we opted for the down hill route also very muddy after I stumbled and slipped a few feet we discussed and decided to turn round and go back the road way as this would be boring but a lot quicker and Jane was moaning about the possibility of getting muddy. By this time I was already covered in it and was as happy as pig in shit.
We get back to the car and decide to go to the summit road in the car took us a little bit of finding but we made it and the roads were good fun especially to drive them. On the way back to the hostel we past a liquor shop and find bourbon whiskey and vodka for $13 a bottle (about £5) which was 1 ltr so we bought two of each, it was only later that night that we realised it was a ‘blend’ of vodka and a ‘blend’ of bourbon whiskey…..we felt robbed!!