Casino Royale

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Day 151 - Monday 18 February

I hadn't got much sleep last night so when the alarm went off at ten past six I didn't want to get up. However i've a plane to catch so we dragged ourselves out of bed and by half six we were on our way to the airport.

Ji-Won had accompanied me, so after checking in I sat with her counting down the minutes until I had to go through departures and probably never see her again. It was difficult particularly after I gave her the necklace i'd bought but its time for me to move on. Were still going to keep in touch so who knows what the future holds.

The plane journey from Sydney to Christchurch takes 3 hours and because i'd changed my original flight I was now flying with Jet Star (similar to Easyjet) rather than Quantas. With no free movies or drinks it could have been a boring flight but by chance Russ was also booked on the same flight having arrived from Bali this morning. Even luckier he was sat on the row behind so I could easily exchange stories of the past 3 1/2 weeks to pass the time. Sounds like I'd have enjoyed Jakarta.

As New Zealand is 2 hours ahead of Australia timewise it was already mid afternoon before we arrived in Christchurch. The first thing to do was pick up our hirecar. I'd found a cheap hire company last week and wasn't sure what to expect. We've got a pink Toyota Vitz which looks a bit like a Yaris. Only time will tell if its a bird puller.

After finding our hostel we checked in. Again i'd booked us in the cheapest one I could find and it was half the price of any of the other ones in town. It was also really good and spotlessly clean far better than any hostel i'd stayed in Australia. Its run by Japanese people and caters mainly for Japanese backpackers which I thought was another bonus.

Ive read Christchurch is supposed to be simiar to an English town and have an English feel to it but driving around I couldn't see it. Maybe i'm in the wrong part of town. It is however cold. I'm having to wear my only jumper i'd brought out with me even though its the middle of summer. Perhaps it would be ok if you've just arrived from colder climates but coming from hotter ones its cold (about 18 degrees today).

We didn't fancy drinking tonight so as Russ is a bit of a gambler we headed to the casino. Playing a mixture of roulette and blackjack I was quickly $50 up (20 quid) before a huge losing streak of 13 games of blackjack in a row almost wiped me out. Three times I was down to my last bet before turning it around. Eventually about 4 hours later I got back to evens and called it quits.

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