A Hard Day's Night

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In Which Our Intrepid Explorers Learn The Truth About Global Circumnavigation

Among the great lies you tell yourself (including "childbirth isn't that painful" and "I'll lose those 10 pounds after the holidays"), we must now include, "It's an overnight flight. We'll sleep on the plane."

We just spent our first day in New Zealand on two hours of sleep. Maybe. I think that's probably a generous estimation.

Thankfully the flight was smooth and left/arrived on time. But the cabin was hotter than the seventh circle of hell. Somewhere in the middle of the night, we formed a circle and roasted marshmallows over each other. At approximately 4 a.m., we stormed business class and sacrificed a guy wearing an eye mask in a futile attempt to appease the gods of temperature control.

But did we let this sway our good time once we got here? No. We pulled it together and took Christchurch by storm.

It's lovely here, though after flying across the southern island, I admit I'm itching to get out into the country. Since we couldn't get into the hotel until after 2:00, we noodled around. Today's activities included:


* Climbing 134 steep and narrow steps to the top of the Christchurch cathedral. It appears that New Zealand, though a modern country, does not have a word for "personal injury lawsuit."
* Listening to Rusty create new curse words every time he forgot that the turn signal and the windshield wiper control in our rental car is opposite of those at home.
* Floating down the Avon River in a punt (just like the brothers on Amazing Race a couple of seasons ago) with a charming, funny and sexily-accented punt master named Brett (aka "Brit" thanks to being sexily accented). I'm not sure if there is such a thing as a punt master, but if there is, Brett would be it. He explained that he once punted the guy who voices Big Bird ... so he must be good. It was incredibly beautiful, there were ducks, and it was much cooler than the inside of a 747. This was the best part of the day hands down.


I'm putting in photos of said activities ... except for the part with Rusty confusing turn signals and windshield wipers. Some things just can't be captured through the art of digital photography.

Tomorrow we're off to Mount Cook where there's supposed to be lakes and trees and, sadly, probably not sexily-accented punt masters. We'll keep ya posted.

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Photos

Breakfast of Champions
Clue that we're not in SF anymore: Vegemite shows up in the basket of things to spread on toast.

Is That ... Pot?
Public art in the Christchurch square. It's supposed to evoke blowing leaves ... but I think it looks like a big doobie. Note my mother running away from it in the lower left corner.

Clang, Clang, Clang Went The Trolley
Right outside of our hotel is a tram stop, which continues on throughout Christchurch.

Punting
Rusty and I take to punting along the Avon. In the background, Brett somehow managed to crouch down just in time to be perfectly framed ... and smiling ... in the pic. That cheeky devil.

More Punting
Kenneth gets a little zen in the punt. Shortly after this pic, he also gets a little sun burned.

Comments

[Elizabeth]

Keep em coming!! This is fabulous!!

[Keith]

Green
Well, I have to say that I am green with envy. NZ is one of those places that I've always been interested in seeing. I'm glad that you are having a wonderful time now that you're there. I hope that your return flight is well air conditioned!! I look forward to seeing all of you when you get back!!

[Rhonda]

YEA!
Glad you are all there safe and sound. Chipdog continues to mope around the house. As for the plane, I have one word for you, airvent. I guess they didn't work. :( Love you!

[Ronda]

blog... blog... blog...
Now I can live vicariously through your vacation. And, you're even sending home photos of cute young Kiwis. Good on ya!