Today was a total travel day. After catching the 6 am shuttle to the airport to enable the three hours Virgin Australia said we'd need to get through international security, yada-yada, we zoomed through everything and then proceeded to sit a while until it was at last time to board our Air New Zealand jet to Christchurch.

It was a nice flight though and the scenery at landing was exhilarating—completely different view from what we've seen so far and really pretty! We are very exciting about seeing a bit of the gorgeous green and mountainous New Zealand country this week.

The city of Christchurch experienced major earthquakes in both 2010 and 2011. Although the area is still very pretty, evidence of the devastation is easy to find. I will try to get pictures to illustrate.

We found our apartment, and it is very attractive. It even has a very cute garden/patio area. We like it very much. I've mentioned that food and gas is very expensive in Australia; it is in New Zealand as well, but rent for apartments is relatively inexpensive for what you get.

We picked up some petite steaks and veggies for dinner at the apartment - we will set the alarm for an early wake-up so we can drive to Mt. Cook tomorrow for our Tasman glacier excursion.

Oh yes, in comparison to Australian weather we've seen, it is little nippy here in NZ. We might need just a little heat in the morning and some layers for our walk!