Life in Sydney slowly moves on. On the days when I don't work in the restaurant, I try to do and explore as much as possible. This means mainly that I try to go to an other beach every time haha. Although I must say; the last few days the weather in Sydney has been pretty bad, so there wasn't much beach-exploring to do - my best option was to stay at home and read, write and watch movies. Not why I came to Sydney ... My mood started to slide down again.
Luckily I had an awesome trip to look forward to: a small detour to Christchurch, New Zealand, to visit Alex (who I can officially call my boyfriend since a few weeks). Yes, people, life can take strange turns sometimes. Time with Alex has been too good in New Zealand and we both agreed it would be a shame not to try and work this out. Hence, the short visit to Aotearoa.
Seeing each other again in Christchurch was of course a lot of fun and Alex made sure that my days in New Zealand were well spent.
On day 1 I was treated with what I couldn't do anymore in my first time in NZ: horse riding! I had never been close to a horse, let alone sat on it, so this was a complete first timer. And it was downright coooooool dude :-). We went to Otahuna, which is on the Banks Peninsula, about half an hour from Christchurch. There they gave us a short introduction on how horses think and act, followed by an extensive 'get-to-know-your-horse' half hour. My horse was called Angus and was the biggest of them all. I wonder why ...
After getting used to communicating with our horse, we all joined in for a ride through the hills. It was all very slow paced, but this gave us the chance to thoroughly enjoy the scenery ... Which was, of course (being New Zealand...), beautiful.
Horse riding was followed by a delicious dinner in The Bodhi Tree, a small Burmese joint in Christchurch. A few plates of finger food and a nice bottle of wine, you don't hear me complaining :-).
The day after, Sunday morning, we were to be found in the gym. Yes, my dear readers, you read well. Yours truly did sports. The treadmill was conquered, oh yeah! Now I'm hoping I can keep up the good work ...
After our gym session, we headed up to Mount Algidus Station, where Alex's parents live. Now, this station is exactly what you imagine when you think of Kiwi life. Located at the foot of the Southern Alps, and widely known in the area, it's a place that stretches out for several kilometres on every side. The place is so quiet and serene, it's no wonder Alex's mum often has guests over, who come up to enjoy the scenery and escape the crowds.
We were greeted by Alex's parents, who are both very lovely people, as well as Larry, Tick and Teddy, three very happy dogs.
Life on the station has treated me well, with an attempt to go kayaking (this kind of failed since after the first bend we encountered a few logs stuck on the hydrowaters - too bad ...), small walks here and there, a movie at night with the fireplace burning and Larry keeping my feet warm, and a brave walk on the Boulderstones, which was very pleasant, yet trying for me since I had got my feet wet a few times and tried to keep the damage to a minimum.
Back in Christchurch, we didn't do a lot anymore except enjoying life, eating good food (everyone who comes in Christchurch, go to The Bicycle Thief), drinking good wine and watching movies, going to the casino, go for small walks ... In other words, perfect bliss and perfect travel life.
Saying goodbye again was of course the worst part of this trip, but not to be worried - Alex is going to join me for my trip in South East Asia, so it's goodbye but not for very long.
In the mean time I have Christmas, New Years and my sister's visit to look forward to.
See you soon! :-)
