Christ Church to Auckland

Well our journey to Christ Church was . . . interesting. Our first flight was from Cairns back to Brisbane. It was a little sad flying back knowing I couldn’t go see my friends or go home, but we made it. We had some issues with tickets, which set off my dad’s temper and almost drove me to airport drinking. But we made it through and then headed on to Christ Church. Our flight to NZ had individual TVs, which was fabulous and kept the parents entertained. My dad watched Borat for the fifteenth time and since he had on headphones, he actually heard all of the lines. He laughed hysterically and loudly in the airplane. The time difference in NZ is three hours ahead of Australia, so even though it was early evening for us, we landed around midnight NZ time. We made it through customs pretty smoothly and our coach was there to pick us up. He showed up with a regular sized car and played a quick game of Tetris to fit in all of our luggage.

As we drove through Christ Church, our driver told us about the town and showed us some of the parks. At one point, mom asked, “What are those trees that look like Weeping Willows?” The driver responded, “Weeping Willows.’ As we pulled in the driveway of our hotel about 1am Sunday morning, there were three guys in front of the hotel. Two were wearing suits and one was wearing a full tight leather outfit with a leather facemask complete with eyeholes and a zipper mouth. My mom looked over at my dad and said “I’m getting out on your side.” I can’t make this stuff up. Our hotel room was luxurious and I finally have a real bed! The rowdy kids however were out and about so being on the first floor was a little loud.

We woke up bright and early Sunday morning and Graham with Wilderness Escape picked us up. In our van were a father and son who were also touring Christ Church. The son had been in school in Western Australia and his dad came to travel with him on their way home as well. Graham drove us around town and told us about all the buildings and about how Christ Church is pretty much as English as any town other than England. And it is very true. Our first stop was the Antarctic Centre. NZ is a stop over on the way to Antarctica so that’s why the museum was built. The first exhibit was a snow room complete with an igloo, snowmobile, ice slide and real snow! Dad and I put on parkas and went and played in the snow. Then we went to the penguin show to watch them eat breakfast. Although they’re adorable, they smell horrible. The rest of the museum gave a lot of information about the country and they had a video that showed views of Antarctica from helicopters which was gorgeous. While we were waiting for the rest of our group, I ran back to the snow room for the “storm.” In the room, they simulate a windstorm hitting in Antarctica. The winds got up to 26 mph and it was freezing and loud. Two little boys with their dad jumped in the igloo during the storm to get warm. It was fun, but I only lasted a few minutes and had to leave to go warm up. That pretty much cured me from ever wanting to go to Antarctica.

Then we headed to Willowbank, which has lots of animals. The first animals we came upon were “tame” eels. You could buy eel food and feed them with a little spoon. Mom was terrified, but it was pretty funny to see them up that close. They also had a reindeer and mixed with the cold weather, it almost felt like Christmas. The next exhibit had adorable wallabies including babies!! Don’t worry, I got great pictures. We also finally saw the NZ mascot, a Kiwi. They are nocturnal so we could only see them in a night exhibit. They look like a porcupine with a beak and are really not that exciting. After a delicious lunch we went to ride the gondola up the mountain to get a birds eye view of the city. Dad survived the great heights and slept through the 6 minute history ride about Christ Church.

Once we were back in the city, mom headed back to the hotel and dad and I rode the tram. We went to the markets in town and he got me a nice warm and comfy scarf. Sadly, it’s partly made of possum (I’m SORRY Sparky) but it feels luscious. We also saw furry possum nipple warmers. Yes, you read that right. They had double sticky tape on the back and I couldn’t decide where I could wear them so I didn’t buy them. I did, however, get a picture with dad holding them. We then headed back to the hotel for a quick nap before dinner. Our dinner was delicious and we had a nice walk around town afterwards. We did some more shopping at some souvenir shops and headed back to the hotel. While we were walking I was asking my mom if she’d seen anything she liked. She said “I’m allergic to wool but I might like some of those boots(Uggs).” I told her that Uggs were lined with wool. She responded, “No, they’re lined with lamb.”

After another quick trip in an airplane we have arrived in Auckland. As we were getting our luggage with our driver, his friends said “poor bastard” as we walked by. That should give you a pretty accurate idea of how much luggage we have. So far Auckland is beautiful and we’ve walked around the harbor some and done a little shopping. Tonight it’s a nice seafood dinner somewhere and then off to the glow worm caves and an all day adventure tomorrow!