Its November now and I can’t believe time has flown by as it has. Only 2 months from now I’ll be heading off to Asia with my friend Matt, which we finally have almost all planned!
Determined to get more tramping in and not spend any of my weekends idle, I decided to head up to Christchurch and just see what happened. After walking around the markets, having lunch and a glass of wine in a café, I convinced Eilis to come into town and have a coffee and see a movie with me. Meanwhile she talked me into going tramping with the Peninsula Tramping Club on Amberly Beach the next day. Making an attempt to meet new people and maybe some people our own age after our experience from the festival, we set out full of hope. When arrived at the rendezvous point, the people arriving were definitely of the grey hair variety. I told Eilis that if anyone shows up with a cane we’re not getting out of the car. Not quite canes but lots of hiking poles, and knee pads… Lordy! What else were we gonna do with our day right? After meeting Stan the leader, the group carpooled to the trailhead and after some brief introductions it seemed we were on our way. First he introduced Eilis, “This is Eilis, from Ireland,” hello’s and howdy’s around the circle. Then me, “And this is Kat, from America.” I swear I’m not lying, there was a collective groan amongst the group!! The first face to face bad press I’ve really gotten for being American in New Zealand! We started off on our walk at the slowest pace imaginable and Stan was like a sheep dog herding everyone together and telling everyone to stay close. We got to the beach section that was really beautiful flat brown sand with a great view of the sea. As we kept going, we started to ‘mosey’ down the beach just enjoying the day, and Stan got worried that I was getting tired and couldn’t keep up. Hmm… We started climbing over rocks and boulders along the shore and half way along, Stan comments that I’m doing a great job! I was really starting to get irritated with this guy so I sarcastically ask him if he was worried I couldn’t manage? No straight answer, just a lot of bluster. Some American that had joined them before must have really screwed up. Hours later after walking for what seemed forever on a rocky beach we finally made it to Stan’s bach (cabin, cottage, summer home) and his wife gave us coffee and fresh scones. Later in the walk I finally managed to convince Stan that I wasn’t pathetic and Eilis and I chatted with him about how we play music. Back at his house, instead of paying our walking fee, he actually asked if we would play a few tunes for the group. A great end to what could have been a very walk.
On the way back we stopped at Barrie and Kath’s place, Barrie is the accordion player from the session, just to say hello, and we ended up invited in for a beer and dinner. We started talking music and it was 10pm before we left and headed back to Christchurch, and me back to Ashburton.
The next week was Cup Day on Tuesday and Charlotte, one of our receptionists, and I had been planning to go up to the races for the day. Cup Day is thoroughbred racing and supposedly a fancy event, where everyone dresses up to the nine’s and wears hats. Not wanting to splurge too much I found a $4 hat at the Coin Save shop that looked like a bad Easter bonnet. When we finally got there after I stupidly left my wallet at home, we parked up and walked into our fancy event. Even on the walk in there were so many early 20’s drunks walking in trying to hide their remaining alcohol under their fancy dresses that I started to get worried. Just inside the gate, we got a few beers and walked out to the lawns in front of the track to watch the races. We were a few races late from the beginning and there was already trash everywhere, drunk 18-25’s stumbling around so you had to watch your fingers so they didn’t get stepped on. BUT we placed our bet’s on a few races and with my landlord Ross’s advice for Monkey King to win, I made $25!!! After the races finished Craig from work found us and gave us a ride back into town. It was a Tuesday night and the Irish session was on but I forgot that the car park where I parked my car locks at 8pm, so my fiddle was locked away. We stopped in anyway for a drink and Patty let me play a few tunes on her fiddle.
The Christchurch Show Day was the following weekend so Eilis and I met up there and walked around the day watching the show jumping, wood chopping, sheep shearing, and being a sweltering day with the sun out, we even stopped for ice cream and a mushroom sandwich… yeah never had a mushroom sandwich and likely won’t again. It was very similar to our county fairs in the US, just no tractor pulls or demolition derby!
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