Link to Christchurch Pics
The greatest thing happened to me today. This morning the hostel receptionist
mentioned paying for my stay so I asked her the total, to which she replied
$203. I thought that was cheap for my 9-night stay, being the price for a
7-night stay, but decided to be thankful instead of paranoid about the booking.
I was bummed when she said I’d need to pay cash, however, because I need to
withdraw my debit card’s max of $500 every day to finish paying for my car by
Tuesday morning. With the hostel expense, my ownership of Hank would be delayed
until Wednesday. This bleak news compounded with the fact that I’m itching to
get out and see some of the vast beauty NZ has to offer, along with the eternal
waiting game pertaining to prospective job callbacks should have had Control
Freak Summer all a tither. Yet for some mysterious reason that anxiety never
materialised, what did linger was the ominous feeling with regards to my hostel
booking. I thought I was checking out on 19-02, but when did they think I was
checking out? I looked in their scheduling planner and saw the last day my name
appeared was Monday 16-02, which meant they had me checking out on the 17th.
Now the ‘Oh Shits’ really started kicking in, but instead I experienced
something completely unexpected, excitement.
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| This gorgeous mural literally materialised before my eyes in just a couple of days. |
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| Random oversized armchair art. Fun! |
Now, something happened in between discovering I had to pay
the hostel cash, thus delaying Hank-ownership, and finding out that I had to
leave the hostel two days earlier than planned, which functioned to calm potential
stress. While at the ATM today I discovered the $500 limit on my card was in USD,
I can actually take out about $650 NZD per transaction. Tuesday was still a go
for Hankity goodness; I even got him a present today!
Consequently, leaving the hostel on Tuesday is no biggie
because I could turn Hank into ‘Chez Summer’, buy a pillow and some blankets
and crash in the car. There were other options as well, like calling the Nelson
hostel to ask if I could check-in a couple of days early, which I could have.
Then I thought: ‘wait, I’m in NZ and have two nights to go wherever I want!’
ADVENTURE!
I had planned on going to Arthur’s Pass, a 2.5 hour
drive NW into the mountains, anyway so why not stay a night there?! Then the
receptionist also suggested staying in Punakaiki for a night, a really neat
town with a natural wonder called ‘pancake rocks’ on the Western coast and practically on
my way to Nelson if I was driving through the mountains. In addition to my love
of anything having to do with pancakes, by happenstance I had already bookmarked
this hike in my NZ Frenzy guide as a must-see destination! Finally, I
knew it was meant to be when both towns had a place for me to sleep for the
nights I needed though it’s ‘high season’ and they’re usually completely booked.
Not only am I stupid excited about this interim exploit, I’m exceedingly proud of myself for not completely losing my shit when my initial plans
started falling apart. Major progress!
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| The ICC Cricket World Cup is in Christchurch! |
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