New Zealand 2017, November 29 (At The Mountains Of Madness)

Another long walk to collect the car, the last one for a while at least. I had an option of paying extra for another Commodore but just went with the compact option for city driving, which turned out to be a Hyundai Accent. Always a Holden, Hyundai or Toyota at these places, it was new and had a hand brake so it did the job.

Compact car.

Jason had the job of setting the GPS for the base station of the gondola, but instead sent me through a tunnel under the mountain and out the other side to Lyttelton. Had to revert to poor man's GPS aka street signs to find the way there instead. First observation from driving, almost all city roads are a standard 50km/h, even some that are wide and have more than one lane in the outer areas. Managed to find Radio Hauraki on the car radio again, a really good channel that plays a mix of 1990's and newer, but actually 90% of it is good, even had a Tool song come on.

Took the gondola up to the top of Mt Cavendish, you can also just walk up there but I wasn't sure how long or difficult the track was, looking out the window it seemed like it would have been easy enough. In the station at the top there was this free 'time tunnel' moving cart ride which was very disappointing. It goes for less than 10 minutes and you just get taken around inside this cart and they have some videos play about the history of New Zealand. They listed Phil Keoghan from The Amazing Race as one of their famous New Zealanders during the last video, which seemed an odd choice. There wasn't even any jump scares.

Some of Christchurch.

After looking around inside, braved the outdoors and started out on the Crater Rim walkway. A lot of twists, hills and gates on the route, so probably took about 45 minutes to go 2.5km. Unlike the cows from Taupo that don't really care to get out of your way, there was sheep on these hills that run for their life before you can even get close to them. Then they just resume eating grass and keep a close watch as you walk past. Reached some retired anti-aircraft station at Mt Pleasant which was a good time to stop for lunch, before turning back. I'd already paid for a return ticket on the gondola so took that down instead of walking to the car park.

Down to Lyttelton.

Sheep in the fog.

Drove through to Lyttelton again, nothing to see there, so back to the city. There wasn't many people around but somehow every parking spot in every street was taken! Went to the Canterbury Museum since the price was good (free). Nothing too special about the museum, the settlement history of Christchurch was probably the best, as well as the Antarctica rooms. Seems like NZ has some history with Antarctic exploration too, but just reminded me of a H.P. Lovecraft book a bit too much.

Only kiwis I saw.

Went over the outlet mall just before closing time, no Nike store so had low expectations. Didn't find much, just a new brand of running shorts to try out.

After dinner was a bit tired, but went out for a run down to Hagley Park anyway. It was about 750 metres on the footpaths to get there which was a bit crap, but the park was much better and had some good paths to run on.

Steps: 18000 + 6km run