Christchurch and blasphemy

Had a lie in this morning, sorted some of my things out, got ready, then went for a walk into town with Andrew. We got on the shuttle bus which is a free service (hurrah for something free!) and does a circular route around town and out a little way to some of the larger out of town shops – this might sound like a long-ish journey but it really isn’t – Christchurch is not that big! We took the bus to Hoyts, the big cinema, originally the main train station. Our trip was very quick, we were merely buying our tickets for the film we would see later. We then popped into the shop opposite and bought some supplies for our trip, before getting back on the bus and heading to town.

We hopped off the bus at Cathedral Square and had a wander around. The cathedral isn’t particularly big, but we went in and had a look – it was surprisingly lovely inside, a mixture of slightly modern features with old. Very nice indeed.

Outside the cathedral there was a big sign with a countdown to the Rugby World Cup in 2011 – Christchurch is incredibly excited about the prospect of hosting the rugby it seems! We continued to have a wander around the town, it isn’t very extensive but it was pleasant walking about and appreciating just how English it seemed – much of the architecture looks very old fashioned and could be from any ‘old’ English town - even the trees look English!

Jet had mentioned a place called Strawberry Fayre, famed for its desserts and whilst making our way back to the hostel, we came upon it by accident. It did look rather lovely and we thought we’d go in for a coffee and sweet delight. And a sweet delight it certainly was! Although they have a full menu, it appears that many people go there just for dessert – the menu is quite large and it took us a while to choose! Each of us had something different and were both blown away by what arrived! Andrew had a white chocolate cheesecake and I had a caramel & hazelnut torte – these sound pretty basic, but they were exquisitely presented and absolutely delicious!

Feeling rather stuffed, we continued back to the hostel where we sat down in the lounge and chilled out for a bit. I did some surfing on the very slow wifi connection (it certainly is no free Maccas wifi!) and chatted to some of the people in there. We watched tv (Simpsons, Home & Away and Neighbours) and accidentally traumatised a guy called Alan (a massive Irish guy who I could barely understand!) by revealing some of the Neighbours spoilers I had been told on the Neighbours tour! He was shocked at the revelations I made and then wished he hadn’t asked – I actually thought he was joking as he really doesn’t fit the usual demographic of a Neighbours enthusiast, but then realised he really was a mega-fan!

Andrew and I then got ourselves ready and went back into town. We went for dinner at an Irish pub called The Bog, where Jet works. He popped out for a break and sat with us for a bit, then we went and grabbed a cab to take us to the cinema. The taxi driver was really nice and told us about some of the places we passed along the way.

We were a bit early for the film, so went into the arcade and wasted a couple of dollars – Andrew played some shooting game and I found a horse racing game, it was actually quite good fun and I even won 20 tokens (which is worth nothing!).

The film we saw was the new remake of one of my top 3 films of all time – Clash of the Titans. It was in 3D, which was actually quite good, but the film itself was not a patch on the original – as I had suspected would be the case. Stupid Hollywood trying to fix what isn’t broken. Firstly, Pegasus can not be black, that is clearly hideously wrong, and secondly the clockwork owl can not be locked in a box for the entire film, that is clearly also hideously wrong. I might go so far as to say it was kind of entertaining nonetheless, although I would say that people who do not know, appreciate and love the original like I do, will like this version enough, which is fine, but I can not let the original go. Quite, quite blasphemous. Rant over.

After the film, we walked back to town, where Andrew went off to meet Jet at the pub and I headed back to the hostel to pack my bags and get some sleep.