A brief Christchurch visit in photos

Recently I completed 6 years of blogging. This fact took me by total surprise because of the time I started blogging, I had a reputation of not completing tasks. That I will actually blog continuously for more than half a decade and also start earning from it shocked everybody who knows me, the most of all being myself. Today during my idle moments of retrospection, I tried looking back at my pre-blogging travel days when the only time I would write was to meet deadlines. Before blogging, I also hardly took any photographs and thus have many visited destinations which remain only as memories in my mind. Christchurch in New Zealand is one such place which I visited briefly before my blogging days and it was to attend an acquaintance’s wedding.

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Reception of the Kiwi Rugby team in Christchurch

A wedding in Christchurch

At that time, I was a very young woman: inexperienced, not jaded, innocent, and stationed in Perth, Australia. Life in WA was nice and I loved living among the Aussies. Their sunny laidback, generous nature made me happy and I truly enjoyed the sight of the Swan River from my sun deck. It was a good life, brief and fulfilling though due to a very hectic professional calendar, I hardly had much time to enjoy this remote continent. The only break came with an acquaintance’s wedding in Christchurch and he was a dear friend, who was desperately unhappy in New Zealand. X was from Germany and he was an expat automotive technician working in a German company in Christchurch.

An expat wedding and a happy reason for traveling

Earthquake, Rugby World Cup and other Christchurch events

The tightknit Christchurch local community culture did not give him much breakthrough and he was very lonely there. That is why he did not bother exploring New Zealand much and chose to bring in a German bride to cohabit with him instead. I was very happy to receive the news of his wedding and took 10 days off from work. The plan was to travel through New Zealand a bit before the wedding and see one of the world’s loveliest countries. Things did not go as planned, however, and the wedding was postponed due to a massive earthquake, which damaged Christchurch a lot. Then, just a few days before my arrival, the Kiwis won the Rugby World Cup. New Zealand went crazy over the victory and nearly every Kiwi seemed to be coming back to their country to rejoice at that time. Needless to say, all flights, especially out of Australia got sold out fast and by the time, I managed to scramble a seat on a plane, New Zealand was full of happy, festive locals traveling all over their island country to celebrate. Every hotel, inn, B&B, and holiday rentals were full and I nearly spent my entire vacation in Christchurch except for a short trip to Wellington.

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A hike to the Port Hills

A sneak peek of expat life in Christchurch

My friend and host, being a loner did not have much local insight into the city and the only things we did were to enjoy great coffee, hike all over the Port Hills, drive to the beaches, and enjoy a farmer’s market at the cute neighbourhood of Lyttelton. As mentioned before, those were days before blogging. So, I have no special experiences to share, no stunning photos to boast, and definitely no travel advice to give. At that time, I did not travel for travel’s sake but for the sake of my work, friends, and family. This photo essay is just a recollection of how traveling used to be for me before I discovered the magic of blogging: simple, uncomplicated, and old-fashioned.

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