Christchurch

Rain, rain, rain. My first full day in Christchurch is so rainy the busker acts are cancelled. So I ended up spending much of my day in the hostel, library, and at the art gallery. The Frauenreisenhaus is a women's hostel with free bikes to borrow, an herb garden, and a lovely cottage setting. The quirky owner, Sandra, has two guinea pigs (Duchess and Princess) and can speak bits of 0ver 30 languages. The first room she shows me smells like stinky shoes (I suspect from the room's occupant). "Umm...do you have any air freshner?" I ask as politely as possible. She catches my drift and shows me the upstairs "Japanese" room which is airy and much better!

At the art gallery, I enjoy the new exhibit "The Naked and the Nude" which is a collection of pieces ranging from beautiful impressionistic nudes to sculptures of grotesque creatures, to strange such as a painting of a human body with a monkey's head. Afterwards, I ride in the rain to Perry's Cafe and inhale a vegetarian fritter. Yummy.

Back at the library, someone named Rory has responded to my couchsurfing request for tomorrow. I'm psyched! For those of you that are unfamiliar with it, Couchsurfing.org is an organization of people willing to host travelers in their homes. Members create an online profile (I'm Runnergirl1980 if you want to check mine out!) describing themselves, their place, and whether they are able to host a paticular day or couple of days. A surfer emails a potential host and if the host agrees, directions and details are swapped. Both surfers and hosts leave Ebay-like feedback about the experience so if someone had a very negative experience that host or surfer would likely be ostracized from the community. Rory had a long list of positive references so I was pretty confident we would get along.

The next day, Rory and I schedule to meet at 2pm outside the library. With 3 hours until then, I walk down Worchester and see the yellow and white striped tents of a craft market. Vendors hawk sheepskin lined boots, handmade jewelry, and wool scarves. A tarot card reader's sign offers to reveal the "Next 3 months of your future!" I smell carmelized nuts and someone is selling "pizzillas" but I can't tell how they differ from regular pizzas. I make my way to Columbo St. under a gray, drizzling sky and see the orange The Original $10 Haircut Bar. I've been wanting to cut my hair for weeks. I duck inside and announce I want to cut several inches. My hairdresser Cheri (pronounced "Sure-ee") is an enormous woman with bright purple hair and sweet disposition. I put my complete trust in her hands and she cuts my mop into a spunky, piece-y style just above my shoulders. Other attempts at going this short have made my hair poofy and afro-like but this time I love it!

I head to Cathedral Square and see the buskers are back on! I spend the next half hour watching "Mulletman" ride around the square on an extremely tall unicycle while catching flaming batons. Nearby, a woman dressed in a flight attendant outfit with laquered hair swivels back and forth on a platform robotically, pantomiming various flight attendant tasks.

I spend the rest of the day with Rory. We visit his friends Stu and Jenny and coo over their new baby girl, Ella. At another friend's, I play peek a boo with their 9 month old daughter, Tallulah and eat crumbly peanut butter cookies. Rory shows me some surrounding areas of Christchurch including Cave Rock in Sumner which you can underneath and on top of! I enjoy looking at the various mussels clinging to the lower section of rock. Back at Rory's, I have the cozy all-blue spare room which contains a super comfy bed. We play guitar, talk, and drink Mill Road Merlot before heading to his friend Michael's house. I attempt to hit a ball with a cricket paddle half as well as Michael's son does! The remainder of the day is spent laughing and enjoying new friends.