We Have Arrived - Day 1 - Christchurch, New Zealand

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It took Kirsten and Chester 6 airports, 5 flights, and 35+ hours to get to Christchurch, NZ; and we both came from different parts of the world. We truly did travel half way around the world. But the last flight for both of us had its highlights. Tired and groggy and dreading having to listen to another safety briefing, when who do you think appears on the screen. No other than the 80's fitness icon, Gene “Sweating to the Oldies” Simmons. Complete with curly hair, blue sequined tank top and satin short shorts. The cast of characters around him all donned 80's workout apparel including the headbands.
Our first day was fairly uneventful. We walked around town and witnessed the devastation of the earthquake that hit this city about 6 months ago. Many of the streets are blocked off and the city center is unreachable. The number of businesses, apartments, houses, churches and buildings that are unstable and abandoned is depressing. The winter weather is quite mild though and we walked through the parts of town we could under sunny skies. Battling a little jet lag, we went back to our hotel for a short nap. For dinner we walked to a little Italian place close by. One of the big observations we have noticed about the people of NZ is there lack of color in their wardrobes. Not that we are fashionistas of the western world, but come on, some color won't hurt. Everyone wears shades of brown, black and white. That's it. During dinner there was one woman in a dull red shirt, and one guy had a red-striped scarf, that's it. No other color in the entire restaurant except the 2 of us of course. Ohhhh, and we did notice a guy walking through the airport in a black one-piece ski outfit. Pretty sweet! We made it an early night since we were a little tired from our travels and had a 2 1/2 hour drive ahead of us on Friday.

On a side note we know with a 4.5 week trip we will run intot some problems. At least one we know of early. One of the low cost Australian airlines taht we booked sevearl of our domestic flights on, has been grounded by the FAA for the month of July. So now we get to pay full price on another airline with a last minute reservation. Love it.

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