Pancakes

Our bus was leaving at 16:40 and the Albatross Backpackers where we were staying had a great policy. Sundays start with a free late pancake breakfast at 10:30 and a late checkout at 12:00. So we slept long and then got positively surprised by the whole setup. The hostel owner herself was baking pancake after pancake, they had maple sirup, jam and peaches and some coffee and you could really eat as many as you want. Generally the hostel was a bit alternative and quite nice. They had music instruments everywhere free for use. Art was hanging all over the walls with a small corner in which you could contribute by painting your own master piece (we sadly didn't have time). Lots of board games, a free clothes box, organic tea and coffee. And the people staying there were also nice.

So we didn't mind spending the hours until the bus would leave, by just hanging around, talking to others and... finally getting some ebooks on our ebook reader! Yes, we are carrying an ebook reader since the start of the trip. While we can proudly say that we seemed to have packed correctly as we really use everything on a regular basis and didn't miss anything really either yet, the ebook reader was an exception. The only books on there were 2 Lonely Planets, one from Norway and one from Ecuador. So it was more than time to change that. Now we are also the proud owners of travel guides from South New Zealand, Fiji, and Australia. Actually useful ones.

A bus ride of 3 hours brought us to the city of Christchurch. To get to our hostel we had to walk 2.2km which felt heavy with all our stuff. On the bright side that gave us the opportunity to see a bit of Christchurch and how 9 years after the big earthquake the effect is still so visible. Not only are lots of the buildings very new, there are also still quite some clear spots where nothing has been rebuild yet.

Arriving at the hostel, we smelled weed all over the place. Our dorm room was occupied by 2 others that had already stayed there for several months. It's not the nicest if you can't even find a place to put your backpack that isn't already occupied by dirty clothes, opened bags of rice, plastic cutlery, or other trash. It was basically an incredibly dirty student room where mother hasn't visited for quite a while. At least it was only for one night. A few minutes from the hostel we found a Domino's that sold us 2 pizzas for 10 dollars. That was really cheap, and actually pretty good.Read more