Christchurch

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So, it was in the early hours of Monday morning when we finally found our way to our seats in the exit row. Wonderful, lots of leg room for us, but we had to try to focus on the instructions being given to us by the flight attendant when we were feeling very sleepy. Now we were being told that we were being delayed because the ground staff had to transfer food from another plane? The captain was actually a bit arrogant blaming our delay on the ground staff processing the transit passengers and then for a problem with the catering?? Whatever! The last two transit passengers clambered aboard and we pushed back from the aero bridge about an hour later than scheduled.

After an uneventful flight across the ditch we touched down in Christchurch still running about three quarters of an hour behind schedule. I have to note that the pilot judged our landing perfectly with a lovely gentle touch down. Quite a welcome change after being smacked down onto the runways in Ho Chi Minh City and Singapore on our recent trip to SE Asia. As we made our way off the plane and through the aero bridge we were serenaded with the sounds of birds calling and sheep bleating. Hilarious!

We filled in our arrival declarations and negotiated the smart gate again without any trouble. Because we hadn’t filled in our card in-flight the delay with doing our paperwork saw us arriving at the baggage carousel just in time to see our bags going out through the flaps to complete another circuit. Not to worry, we really weren’t in a hurry because we were going to have to wait until 7.00am for the Europcar desk to open.

Suitcases in tow we made our way to some seats adjacent to the Europcar desk where we waited for 7.00am to tick over. Fortunately we were second in the queue so had the keys to our hire car by soon after 7.00am. We headed out to pick up a Mitsubishi ASX only to find that the keys were for an Outlander. The person on the desk didn’t say a thing to Bernie but, surely, that’s an upgrade? The only thing that really mattered though was that our luggage fitted into the cargo space easily.

Bernie asked Google for some breakfast options open at 7.00am in the morning. A place called the Food Exchange came up saying that it was only 140 metres from where the hire car was parked in the Europcar depot. ‘We could walk’, I suggested. ‘We might as well drive’, the driver said so we drove out of the depot, to the roundabout where I said we needed to do a hard left. No, no, no, that’s just going back into the airport it can’t mean that.

We then proceeded to do a couple of circuits around the block that passes the International Antarctic Centre (next on our list AFTER breakfast) before the driver cracked it with Google and decided to open Apple Maps which proceeded to take us on EXACTLY the same route. ‘Look, there’s a Novotel Hotel in there, perhaps the Food Exchange is in there’, I said. So we turned into the thrice rejected Durey Road and … found ourselves back in the Europcar Depot with no sign of the Food Exchange!!!!

After all of this faffing about we decided to put the car back where we had found it and try to find breakfast on foot. We also decided that the Food Exchange is a figment of someone’s imagination that does not actually exist!! Eventually we wandered back into the airport terminal and ate some breakfast at a café in there.

This brought us very nicely to 9.00am when the International Antarctic Centre opens so we headed back out to the hire car and took it out of the depot again and drove straight to the Antarctic Centre because we knew EXACTLY where it was having already cruised past it several times in pursuit of breakfast.

While at the Antarctic Centre we experienced an Antarctic Storm in the Storm Dome, watched the rescue penguins being fed, saw some gorgeous Huskies, enjoyed a 4D theatre experience and took a Hägglunds Field Trip aboard an amazing all-terrain amphibious Antarctic vehicle. Operating on very little sleep the Antarctic Storm provided us with a much needed pick-me-up. After putting on parkas and overshoes we ventured into the dome which is cooled to -8°C. That was invigorating in itself, but then they simulate a storm which causes a wind chill factor to kick in reducing the temperature to a ‘feels like’ -20°C. Brrrr!

From the Antarctic Centre we drove up to the Christchurch Gondola car park. After riding the gondola to the summit station we enjoyed lunch with 360-degree views of Christchurch, the Canterbury Plains and Littelton Harbour, on the crater rim of Christchurch’s extinct volcano. We were very lucky that the weather did the right thing by us and we had a spectacularly clear and sunny day. After lunch we took a short, but steep, walk on the crater rim walkway to Cavendish Bluff Lookout.

When we purchased our gondola ticket we opted for the deal that included a ticket for Christchurch’s Hop On & Hop Off Tram. With the afternoon ticking away we drove back down into the city and parked the car near Cathedral Junction/Stop 1 on the tram’s route. Phew, after completing the circuit that the tram takes and hearing the live commentary provided by the incredibly knowledgeable driver and guide, we have realised that on our one day in Christchurch we have barely scratched the surface of all it has to offer!

We finished our tram journey at New Regent Street/Stop 18, just short of completing the full circuit, because our driver highly recommended the gelato shop Rollickin Gelato. Hey, the sun was shining and we’re on holiday, how could we resist gelato ice creams??!! Then we walked it off by strolling back to the Avon River to photograph a couple of bridges, historic buildings and the ornate Bridge of Remembrance. While checking out the very tame eels in the river – and one very BIG fish – I managed to drop my phone in the river!!! Fortunately it was shallow and I snatched it back out of the water very quickly and – it seems thus far – that no lasting damage has been done. I have a sort of jelly-like plastic/silicone cover on the phone which has proved to be effective in protecting the phone from being dropped a couple of times so it seems it might make it more waterproof too? Thank goodness!

From the river we walked back to High Street to view Christchurch’s unique Transitional Cardboard Cathedral before returning to the car. Just about running on empty it was finally time to check into our hotel, have hot showers, clean our teeth and change our clothes after managing to stay on the go all day long. We even managed to walk to the pub a couple of hundred metres away for some dinner before giving in to sleep. Now, after staying awake long enough to reinforce today’s memories with a travel blog entry, it is definitely time for bed.



Steps for the day: 13,773 (9.09km)

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