Back in NZ

Here's what I can remember of the first 2-3 weeks of our 2nd stint in NZ, we are going to be updating the later bits soon.

We arrive back in Christchurch after a relatively trouble free and sporadically wonderful journey. Only issue was we hadn't printed out our onward itinerary from NZ without which we couldn't enter the country and so had to do some mad dashings around Sydney airport trying to get stuff printed out which was way more painful than necessary. Sporadically wonderful purely because of Singapore airport, it had a butterfly garden, an orchid garden and about 5 other gardens and they were fantastically peaceful places in contrast to the electronic retail heaven it otherwise is.

Our arrival in Christchurch was one that really took us back, when the final leg of our journey kicked off the captain mentioned what sounded like a chilly temperature at our destination and I thought I must have misheard him and thought little more of it. That is until we were approaching arrival he came on again and said it was 4 degrees, Claire and I looked at each other with surprise but still didn't really think it would be that cold...how wrong we were...it was brassic, disappointed doesn't do it justice! Anyway we found a little hostel and put an extra duvet on our bed before we did anything else, the room was basic and we were unlucky enough to have small holes in our room through to the outside for pretty fairy lights, how lovely, not!! No buildings in NZ or Australia in my experience are set up for cold weather and ours was no exception but with the extra duvet coupled with extreme tiredness we managed to have a good sleep.

On our 1st morning we had the most delicious breakfast in suburban Christchurch and walked into the city taking in the botanical gardens, the Art gallery and wandering around the Avon river, it was one of those crisp clear days you get back home in winter with not a cloud in the sky, and we were pleasantly surprised with how nice Christchurch is as we didn't really explore it last time we were here. Next day was Sunday and we picked up our new (though older than Zinny) van called Steely though I have renamed it Greedy on account of it's irritating ability to consume petrol far too quickly for my liking!! For the rest of Greedy's adventures go find another entry...