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Published: June 14th 2014
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It's a good thing we decided to give ourselves 3 hours lead time to be at the airport. After three trips back to the house for forgotten items and a stop at a friends to get last minute gifts, get to LAX, check in, and get through security, we had just 20 minutes before boarding. We were all so excited but still slightly in the "cannot believe we are going" stage.
We had a great flight. Immediately the girls were so excited with all the entertainment options available to them. Movies, TV, video games, music, flight information so they could follow the flight progress, information and videos about our destination. Each of them watched different things, they all played video games together, and I watched all the information about New Zealand that I could find. It has helped already for our trip. I made sure we all got about 7 hours of sleep and that also help. We were tired on day one but still had a very full day.
We arrived in Auckland to torrential rains. News reports that the rain has brought flooding to the area and the East Coast (including our final destination today, Christchurch). Our
flight had a fair amount of turbulence which thrilled Brienne and Baylee and terrified Briar Rose. I wasn't too bothered but it definitely had my attention. But because of it, we were late arriving in Auckland and concerned over missing our connecting flight to Christchurch. We had to rush to get our bags and get from the International Terminal to the Domestic Terminal. There was not time to wait for the shuttle and several of us were told to make a run for it.... in the torrential rain... so we did. Everything was soaked through and through. We did not have a dry anything, but we made it. We got check in and made it to our gate with 5 minutes to spare.
THEN the Unexpected Journey, as Baylee named it, began. Over the loud speakers we hear our names being called to return to the check in counter. I asked the attendant to call and find out why we were being asked to return when our flight was mere minutes away. Apparently I had left a piece of luggage over at the International Terminal and we needed to go back and go through customs again. My heart was
broken because our day was definitely going to be different. The sacrifice of our trek through the rain was for not an I was going to make my kids do this all over. But they are super stars! They pepped me back up and we made Hobbit jokes for the next hour as we got everything sorted out. The Kiwi People of New Zealand actually made this small delay so much easier and we were on the very next flight to Christchurch.
Our arrival in Christchurch was met with more rain. We got the luggage trolley for hell and laughed hysterically as we tried with incredibly difficulty to get it and our luggage out to meet our shuttle driver. He thought we were nuts until we got to him and he tried to take over with worse results. Loaded and soaking we made it to our car rental agency. They were not expecting us until the next day, the car was smaller then we expected, and despite making arrangements with our credit card company, our card is being denied everywhere we present it. But we will not be stopped by any of this and we paid with the debit
card and shoved our stuff everywhere it will fit and off we went!
Ok driving on the left side of the road is confusing enough, but add in the rains and we get a ride to scare everyone! Briar Rose sat with her head down for most of the first day. Brienne, Baylee, and I laughed in between my frequent shouts of "Oh Shit!" but not once did I screw it up and we made it everywhere we wanted to go.
First stop was the Canterbury museum and Botanical Gardens along with a walk in the rain along the river Avon. We were not able to go punting as we hoped, but had a lovely visit with the owner. The museum was fantastic and we had a lovely lunch of Fish & Chips and warm beverages (remember we are all still in wet clothes). Brienne wanted to see the Birds of New Zealand display which we all liked. They also had displays of an Egyptian Mummy, environmental and Eco friendly product and advances, body senses, Maori Cultural, English migration and early settlings, weather, and many more. The Gardens were massive and beautiful, even in the cold winter weather
and the rain. We walked to the rose garden, and the green houses, which were amazing!
By this time we were tired and really cold and needed to go find our hotel and get out of these wet clothes. We stayed at the Quality Hotels ELMS which was really lovely. A standard hotel room with two double beds. The staff was warm and welcoming and they had a guest laundry available for us to dry all our clothes. Everything, even the clothes in our suitcases were soaked.
We then walked across the street and went to KFC for a quick and familiar dinner. The girls marveled at the "normal size" of the portions and decided that instead of saying Super Size, we will now call it American Size. Don't American size us! We ended up staying up later then we wanted to because of the laundry, but it was a fantastic first day in Middle Earth.
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Kim K
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A Thrilling Start!
It sounds like you guys are having a great time despite the initial challenges. And I so admire you driving on your first trip there, M! I have been too afraid to drive anywhere that they drive on the left side. We had a trip once that got off to a bit of a rocky start like that, but then afterward everything seemed so effortless. I hope it is the same for y'all!