DAY TWO

We woke up nice and early for breakfast at eight. We were all still sort of on Queensland time so this was actually five in the morning for us. We left about nine to go into the “city” or Christchurch and go around the Museum/Botanical Gardens until our performance at 2pm. This was very nice and it was a good way to be introduced to New Zealand. The place that we went to was an old University that was later converted into a Museum. And for those chemistry nerds out there, that university was the place where Rutherford conducted his experiments using the cathode ray! And we even went into the “den” where he did all of his research! Pretty exciting I know! Anyway, the place was so beautiful (and cold!) and I got plenty of photos. We didn’t really go around the museum much because it kinda wasn’t our thing but we walked around the surrounding streets which were very nice and tried to get used to using the strange New Zealand money which looked fake and could seriously pass as monopoly money! The little stalls were pretty cute and there was a good fudge shop which we all bought some good fudge from. Today was the day where we all started to get to know each other a bit (I’m talking about the people who we didn’t talk to previously i.e the guys in our grade and grade twelve and the other grade twelves. They were the people who we hang out with most of the tour.) After lunch Brooke and I went over to see the Botanical Gardens. My God. They were just so beautiful! Everything was so lush and green and perfect! They had the English style to them which was very nice and made great pictures! I seriously couldn’t get over how lovely that place looked! I swear I took about 100 photos that day.

Our concert went great; we played in a beautiful little courtyard underneath a big green tree to a smallish but welcoming audience. Considering that none of us could actually feel out fingers because it was that cold (and the cold also affects how in tune your instrument is!) and that we were outside compared to normally being inside, we played pretty well. As far as I remember there was no huge mishaps and I think the crowd didn’t notice the minor mistakes if there were any. Pack up was good, everyone helped and got it done quickly. We went back to our rooms and talked until dinner, which was once again good. We got to bed at a reasonable time because Neville was arriving that night at about one-ish. Her and I were supposed to be sharing a bed so I knew I was going to wake up when she got in. I was right. To be honest I had been hanging out for her coming because although I am friends with the other girls, I was the closest to Neville out of them all and I sort of felt a bit lonely without her. So when she came I was pretty happy and also half asleep and from what I remember how I greeted her showed that I wasn’t properly awake.. haha but it was good and I fell back asleep pretty much straight away.