Photos
We woke to a hot clear cloudless sky in Christchurch today. Where there was a chill breeze yesterday there was none here until afternoon today. Where we could not see the distant mountains yesterday even from the surrounding hilltops, they were clear on the horizon today. The sun was brutal.
We had a nearly empty breakfast room this morning, another big change from yesterday. What a difference a day makes.
We had our tram tour tickets to use today after 9am. We checked out after 9am and left our bags at the front desk. Our A2B Luxury airport pickup is scheduled for 3pm. Our first tram stop was to walk down to the CTV building which collapsed killing the majority of those who died in the 2011 quake. The ground floors were filled with children studying ESL and 115 people there died. It is a vacant memorial ground and signage says it will remain that way. Across the corner is another memorial of 185 Empty chairs. The rows of different chairs are all white and yesterday they all had a red flower on them. Today the flowers are gone. Down the block is the Cardboard Cathedral. Peter told us the Japanese donated it to the Anglicans to replace their church and that it has been in use almost 6 years. There was a service going this morning so we only looked around the outside to see how cleverly it was made. You could see through the glass front as well. We checked out a lot of street art. We rode the tram to the Re:Start Mall. We missed this area yesterday as we followed Clay's stupid Google map looking for an ATM. We walked straight through on a path elsewhere that missed by a half block in either direction at least 15 ATMS! So today we saw the container mall, the Bridge of Remembrance and the river terraces. We went down and closely observed how a Scaup duck dives. It looks like he releases air from his butt! We saw a big fish and a big eel. We wandered the container stores and the food trucks/stalls. We decided to have lunch there. Clay had a spicy braut and I had a wood-fired pizza that we shared with a Coke Zero. We had visited Ballantyne's and most everything else we wanted to visit on the tram line yesterday walking. We wanted to return to Rollickin' Gelato for Clay to have ice cream and to get another s'more slice. We finally got on another tram. They were not every 15 minutes today and they were very full when they came. The tram was not really worth the money. We enjoyed the punt much more for the money spent and think we'd have enjoyed the green caterpillar through the Botanic Garden more too. Anyway, finally back down to New Regent Street and Rollickin' did not have s'more slices today. We were very disappointed. Instead we shared an excellent slice of raspberry chocolate flourless cake with a side of whipped cream. Then we wandered back down the street and sat in a breezy spot in the shade where we got caught up giving Christchurch touring advice to a couple from Auckland for the last half hour before we had to go get our luggage and meet our ride.
Peter from our tour yesterday came again. He is excellent at his job. He did not leave us until he had our bags checked and we were ready to go through security. We walked around the unsecured domestic terminal for a while first. We probably should have stayed there longer since there was little on the other side but the necessity were there if not the variety. We walked straight through security and customs/immigration. Pacific Destinations had included NZ departure cards with our travel documents and instructed us to have them filled out and in hand, so we were ready to go. Even with my day pack being pulled out to be manually inspected, it was less than a minute from start to finish! Now we had 3 hours to wait around gate 27! We watched as it turned into 28A and back into 27. We spent most of our remaining NZ money. We spent the rest of our time trying to book a shuttle to the White Bay Cruise Terminal from the International Terminal of the airport. I have no idea why Clay refused to do this until now despite my prodding him for months. I have printed a brochure on the airport train as the last resort. The thing is that we are able to do that but it takes a train at $17.90pp plus walking and a $9pp ferry and more walking. So it is inconvenient and it costs more for 2 people than the online quotes. According to our Cruise Critic roll call it is too late and everything is booked up already and was weeks ago. The other thing is that it is Sunday afternoon/evening and the offices are closed. I expect we'll be going the more expensive and inconvenient method. He says he'll call the Sydney City Shuttle in the morning. It was a different flight. It was 3 by 3 rows and no first, business or premium classes. The entire jet was only economy. Strange particularly for a 5 or so hour international flight. It was almost full. It was fine. We each watched a movie with the inflight entertainment systems and headsets at our seats and they served a meal. Clay got a final couple servings of excellent New Zealand ice cream.
This flight was fine. It left and arrived on schedule. The arrival at Sydney could not have gone quicker or smoother. They had e-passport readers scattered all along the way to baggage claim. We used those without issues. Took our tickets and the immigration forms we had filled out onboard and claimed our bags and had our photos made, turned in our tickets and forms on our way out and we were out. It was maybe 15 minutes! We spent 2 hours from landing trying to get our bags and exit LAX on a domestic flight! Well done Sydney!
We walked out of International Arrivals and about 150 meters to the right to Rydges where we had prepaid our one night hotel. We got in about 10pm. We asked about getting ice and she told us she'd have room service bring it up to us on 6. Forty-five minutes later still no ice and we were waiting up for it. I called down to Reception to cancel the request and the girl who answered asked if we'd been waiting 2 or 3 hours. I told her 45 minutes and we weren't willing to wait any longer. Nevermind. How appalling is that? Do they start freezing the water for ice when it is requested?
Tomorrow we start cruising and hopefully travel will be easier for a month or so!
Photos
Little Bob hits the road
Little Bob hits the road
