My last week in New Zealand was mostly spent in Christchurch, but I stopped at Lake Tekapo for a night. In Tekapo, I stayed in a 5 person tent. It was basically a giant teepee.

When I woke up in the morning, it was 4° C (39° F) and I was freezing. What happened to summer?

My bus to Christchurch wasn’t until 4 pm, so I decided to take a hike up to the top of Mt. John. It wasn’t a particularly difficult hike, but it took about 3 hours roundtrip.

At the summit of Mt. John is the Mt. John Observatory. In June 2012 an area of 1,700 square miles around the observatory was declared as the Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve by the International Dark Sky Association. It is only one of 4 such reserves in the world and the area has a Bortle Scale rating of 2. The scale is 1-9 with 1 being the darkest night sky in the world. There’s a short walk from the observatory on the Northern summit to a special stargazing bench on the Southern summit.

After the hike, I was off to my last stop in New Zealand. I had 5 nights booked at the Jailhouse Accomodation. 5 nights sleeping in a jail cell sounded interesting. The jail was built in 1874, closed in 1999 and was opened as a hostel in 2006.

It was around 8 pm by the time I got settled, so I got some dinner and spent the night at the hostel. The next day, I walked down to the Canterbury Museum and took a shuttle bus to the International Antarctic Centre. The IAC is home to the New Zealand, United States and Italian Antarctic programs.

I spent a little extra money and got the Penguins Backstage Pass. The Antarctic Centre takes in rescued blue penguins that are no longer capable of living in the wild. We weren’t allowed to touch the penguins, but we did get to go into the enclosure. We also went down to the office area where they bring penguins to monitor them. One of the penguins had been acting strange so he was down in the room.

After the penguin tour, I walked through some of the other exhibits before going on a Hagglund ride. Hagglunds are the track vehicles used by the scientists in Antarctica. The ride was about 10 minutes through a course designed to demonstrate the vehicle’s capabilities.

When the ride was over, I saw the rest of the exhibits including the Antarctic Snow and Ice Experience where the air temperature is -8° C (19 ° F). Every hour they simulate a storm with wind chills up to -18° C (-3° F). They give you a jacket when you enter, but I was still wearing shorts and the storm got a bit chilly (even for me).

I took the shuttle back to the museum and walked the 30 minutes back to the hostel. Christchurch was devastated by an earthquake in 2011 and much of the city is still under construction.

After I made dinner, I grabbed a case of beer and hungout at the hostel for a while. Later that night, I went to Sullivan’s where they advertise the “world’s largest glass of beer.” Don’t tempt me with a good time. Turns out the glass is like 9 liters and they don’t sell it. They got my hopes up and then crushed my dream of drinking the biggest beer in the world.

I spent much of the next day hungover and watching the Bruins and Celtics playoff games. After the games ended though, I went and found the tattoo parlor that I would be getting my pohutukawa tree done at. Then I went to Peter Pans and spent a couple hours booking my East Coast Australia trip.

The next day I walked back to the museum and took a shuttle to the Christchurch Gondola. The gondola ride to the top of the mountain takes 10 minutes. At the top is a gift shop, cafe, observation deck, a short “ride,” and great views overlooking the city. The Time Tunnel ride was a 6 minute ride about the history of Canterbury. After wandering around the mountain and the shop, I took the gondola back down the mountain.

When I got back to the museum, I decided to take an Uber to the Willowbrook Wildlife Reserve. They had lots of animals, but they also had a nocturnal kiwi house and I saw 2 kiwis!!!

My last day in Christchurch was spent at Zealand Tattoo. I got a pohutukawa tree on my ribs. For anyone that missed my Cape Reinga post, the Maori people believe that when they die, their spirits travel across the land to Cape Reinga. At Cape Reinga, the spirit passes down the roots of an 800 year old pohutukawa tree into the ocean. The spirit then swims to Three Kings Islands, where they climb to the highest point, Ohaua, and look back to the mainland to bid their final farewell before returning to Hawaiiki-A-Nui, the land of their ancestors. I wanted something to symbolize my time in New Zealand and I think this is a really cool belief about the afterlife.

The rest of my day was spent packing and relaxing. The airport shuttle was picking me up at 3:15 am. 6 am international flights are the best!!!!

A couple days after leaving New Zealand, I came across an article about the Southern Lights that had been on display a couple nights while I was in Christchurch. I had no idea it was happening and I was devastated to know I missed an opportunity to cross that off my bucket list. I stole some pictures from the article. They were taken with much nicer cameras than mine and by much more talented photographers. I assume they were both long exposure shots and the one with the Milky Way is probably 2 photos spliced together, but they make me want to take photography lessons.