Chrischurch, NZ

Well, we're here but after various chronological tricks we seem to have lost a day and a night's sleep. Mr C dropped us off at Bangkok airport at 1600 and we took off at 2000 hrs. Eleven hours, three films, a Thai fish curry and no sleep later we arrived at Auckland. Three hours and interminable queues at Immigration and the Ministry of Organic Bits and Pieces later (no Customs - must be a drying department across the world) and we're bound for Christchurch on an internal flight. Two hours later and we're in Christchurch. Subjectively, it should be midday - but its 6 o'clock in the evening. Just in time for evening drinkies, then. Three hours, three bars and a plate of ribs later we are like the walking dead. Time for bed, at last.

The next day, after an early start (or am I still six hours out?) we take stock over a plate of Eggs Benedict at a cafe right next to the quaint old tram lines. We appear to be in a big old hotel called the Heritage smack in the centre of Christchurch on Cathedral Square. It really has a cathedral in it, too. We paid $18 to see a Festival of Exotica later that morning. I was a bit disappointed as the church was full of flowers. I'd obviously misread the word "exotica" in my post-Bangkok, jet-lagged state but I suppose the church should have been a clue. The Heritage deserves a few words if only for what we paid for two nights there. The building is an old listed government building, the downstairs public toilets had six inch steel doors so I'm assuming they were once a Queens Warehouse or the like. Our room was upgraded: two bedrooms (chocolates on the pillows) and two floors, the lower floor with a fully equipped kitchen area and a washing machine in the lower bathroom for Linda to play with. Very nice indeed but probably not the cheapest accommodation we'll pay for this holiday.

Our middle day was mostly a scenic walk around Christchurch. Weather cloudy but warm. The town itself reminds me of Colorado more than Australia, as do the food portions. Lots of freshly painted restaurants with picket fences. We picked the car up in the afternoon and took it for a spin to the coast (Littleton and Cave Rock). Cue more beer in the evening and another early night. We're ready to roll . . .