Tom's in ________: NZ Day 3, 4, 5

These last 3 days have been much faster than the first day in Christchurch.

On Sunday we took a tour of Christchurch's Cathedral (history's good, I approve of it) followed by a search (successful) for a sweater because it was about 50 outside and I was freezing. When we left the store we happened upon a busker whose cape proclaimed him to be Basketball Man. He was quite amusing (while trying to get people into it: "Alright everybody, give me the clap"), although he possessed the most grating, annoying (hopefully fake) voice I have ever had the misfortune of hearing. It was like a fake Jamaican sucking on helium while trying to accent all his vowels. It was terrible. After that we had a bike tour through the city (mostly the suburbs actually) with our guide Ben (or as he pronounced it Beeen (rhymes with Ian). Aren't subtle verbal differences grand?).

Monday we took an Alpine Safari, which consisted of a long bus ride out to the boonies (boring), wild life 4WD tour (at times exciting, mostly boring), jet boat tour up the Waimakariri River (fuckin' awesome), another bus ride (I slept through) and Scenic Train ride (actually pretty nice). The scenery was beautiful, but a lot drier than I was expecting. I was expecting completely damp dark (like Lord of the Rings), but it was actually very green and lively (although we did get some LOTR setting on the jet boat ride). Oh, and jet boats are very popular in New Zealand, but I don't think they are common in America. What they are is basically a jetski blown up to the size of a boat and they are amazingly fun. By the way, the town in the boonies was Springfield, NZ, who's claim to fame was being one of the places the Simpsons Movie premiered and the town received a giant pink donut for participating.

When we returned to Christchurch we went to Flying Burrito Brothers, which I think is supposed to be their attempt at Mexican food. It was a good try (what being thousands of miles away and everything), but it couldn't hold a candle to real Mexican food. The only way to get spiciness at that restaurant was to use one of the (thoughtfully many) bottles of hot sauce, including tapatio.

Tuesday was another day in town. We started off with a bone carving lesson with the Bone Dude, who is this really cool 1-armed Maori guy running a gallery who also does carving lessons. We all made pendants with maori designs and they turned out really nice. We had a lot of fun, he was really welcoming and I whole-heartedly recommend the Bone Dude if you're ever in Christchurch. After that we walked back to the City Center and had a cheese fondue lunch a Swiss restaurant (it wasn't nearly as good as real Swiss fondue) and toured the Arts Centre (slightly fancy clothing/specialty goods, similar to University or the Stanford Mall). I saw "The Pot Shop" on the directory and I had to check it out based on name alone (and my mom was destined to spent an hour looking at yarn). I got some strange looks as I entered the homemade pottery store (being twice the size and a quarter the age of the woman working the counter), but that subsided when I bought a nice big mug. After that we strolled over to the Cantebury Museum, where we perused many mildly interesting (and one utterly awesome, that you can see in the photos) exhibits. For dinner we went to Bohdi Tree, which is apparently really hard to get a table at. The cuisine was Burmese (and very, very good), so I will revise my Thai restaurant count to SE Asian restaurant count. After dinner I went to do a little shopping and what should come on, but More than... Words. I laughed as other tourists thought I'd lost it.