Monday – Christchurch

Our day began horribly…first as we checked out of our hotel, Capital One declined our charge; this has been the second time during our trip that Capital One “fraud” department has been overzealous in questiong charges. We were ticked because we’ve now called them about 4 times (at our expense) to tell them charges are good. Nevertheles, American Express saved the day. Second…the weather was brutal. Cold winds gusted at about 40 – 60 mph and were accompanied by pea sized hail that pelted us hard. It felt like we were being blasted by a shotgun. Our 40 minute flight from Wellington to Christchurch was uneventful.

After getting our car rental in Christchuch, we headed to the hotel, unfortunately our room wasn’t ready and checkin wasn’t until 2 p.m. so we headed for the Christchurch Gondola. A spectacular 360 view of the bays, ocean, city and mountainside heightened our spirits. We had a long lunch at the summit and Bart enjoyed smashing ice outside in the blistering cold ledges. After a quick checkin at our hotel, we headed off to the downtown plaza. We took a tour of Christhchurch Cathedral (beautiful) and the surrounding plaza;5930

stopped and had coffee, where else but StarBucks (they’re everywhere here). We ended the evening with dinner at the Rivewview Buffet Restaurant. We finally got to sample all of New Zealand’s cuisine in its near entirety and I will say this about the food: it is mostly bland and boring. The one thing lacking in the food here for both grocery bought food, restaurant cooked meals and such is FLAVOR! On the plus side, the homebrewed beer here is great! The kids are doing great and late last night we finished the night by going to the heated pool – yes it really was heated but mostly “warm” rather than “hot.” More adventures tomorrow.