Our earliest morning thus far. We have a 6 am flight to Melbourne. The four hour flight lands at 8 am, making this our first time change since we left New Jersey a week and a half ago. Our AirBnB host is kindly letting us check in around 10 am since no one stayed there last night. I'm under the impression he just has this one property, so it will free up his day.
Christchurch, NZ started off great! We toured the Antarctic Center, which I feel is as close to Antarctica as I will ever get. We splurged on the backstage pass to see penguins. It was both worthwhile and not. They keep the group size to seven, the other party in our group were a three generation non-English speaking Asian family. They youngest, a cute six-year-old boy was soaking it up. The dad and grandparents were bored and kept wandering from the lovely hostess who was trying to keep us together while teaching us about how they care for their little penguins. The Antarctic Center is a 10-minute walk from the airport, and offers free bag check, making it a great distraction during the gap between landing and being able to check into the B&B.
While there we saw a flyer for a tram dining experience, similar to the one we saw in Milan five months ago (seems like so much longer), so we booked it. That and the International Antarctic Center were the highlights of our trip. After the dining experience (photos and details after I get home), our conductor, Paul, gave us a guided tour of their seven cable cars. It was wonderful! I took oodles of pictures. I wish I brought my notebook to remember the details. They are each from 1903 through 1927 and glisten even nicer than the day they rolled off the assembly line. They come from all over the world.
This is when the wheels fell off of our trip (to continue with the transportation theme). When I packed up for the day I realized my glasses were missing. Okay, the wheels fell off when we checked into the B&B and learned I had two reservations -- one for two nights, and one for three nights. The hostess was not helpful and kept saying "It is not my fault," and insisted we pay for the extra first night (fortunately she could cancel the other two nights). Don was stubborn insisting he was not going to pay. She was insisting she would not give us our room key. I left and stared screaming because I couldn't take it any longer!
After checking in, and getting the wifi code, I was able to reach Expedia and find out the first one I tried to book (using Don's email) went through. All correspondence went to Don (I booked through Air New Zealand and I guess they took his email as the default?). Anyway, it was our mistake. Had Don opened his email messages and seen the first booking, I would not have made a second one ten days later when I could not find the booking confirmation. May this be our only problem.
Spent our only full day in Christchurch alternating between hunting for the missing glasses and sightseeing. We tore apart the room, walked the 10-minute route between the hotel and the trolley station, asked the trolley attendants if anyone turned in glasses, asked the library on the route if anyone turned in glasses, popped into hotels and businesses to ask the same, and repeat, and repeat. Plus we walked around Christchurch. Through the botanical gardens and Hadley Park, a mile up the road to the LEGO store in the mall so Don's LEGO passport could be stamped. Back to the room (maybe the cleaning person found the glasses? No.) Back into town. Popped into a few places: Cardboard Cathedral was a highlight, the Canterbury Museum in the CoCa building (their regular museum is closed for massive renovations and they opened the pop up location only five weeks ago), the Art Museum (which fortunately is open late on Wednesdays), lunch at a café, dinner in the oldest stone building: a renovated church complete with organ pipes, church pews, and stained glass windows that opened seven weeks ago, and topping the night off with gelato: hokey tokey pokey (a NZ flavor), Superman chocolate (extra chocolaty), and orange chocolate sorbet (also a NZ unique flavor) from a shop urging our politicians to vote in favor of everyone -- so, that is not a uniquely American problem.
Back to the room. Packed everything up. Set the alarm for 3am, for a 3:30 am pickup from Super Shuttles -- an amazing service I highly recommend if you are going to NZ. At the airport by 4 am for a 6 am flight. Sunrise is 6:25 am.
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