Fisrt Week in Christchurch

Ryan and I have been in Christchurch for a week so far. Here is the recap on what we have done so far. The first five days we spent with Moya and John. Staying at their place as like staying at a fancy hotel. They were very nice to us and we had wonderful teas (dinners) there. Then we moved into another flat still in Mount Pleasant (suburb) for a week and are currently looking for something a little closer to the city to be more permanent. We applied for ird’s (tax id’s), then acquired: mobile prepay phones, library cards, and Metro (bus) cards. We are applying for jobs at the moment and when we have a more stable address then we will get bank accounts. It would also be nice to get a car or even a bike. Most of our days are spent using the Internet at the main city library and walking around the city. The Cathedral Square is the heart of the city. With about 7,000 tourists passing through the Cathedral every year. That is not much compared to some cities but is a lot for here. There are a few ports down the coast that drop a lot of cruise ships off in the area and then tourists are bussed into Christchurch. I had my first interview today to be a Barista on the weekends at the Cathedral Café. I will find out later today if I got the job or not. Nick is working as a bar man at a place called the Spate’s Ale house.

We have done some sight seeing around the city. The first was a picnic walk around Godley Head Walkway near Taylor’s Mistake beach with Moya and John. We have walked through the city center almost every day. Most days the weather has been nice except for the wind and an occasional rain shower. We walked through the Christchurch Botanic Gardens and took a tour of the Christchurch Museum. They have a nice exhibit on Antarctica and the first treks to the South Pole. We also spent a day to go to the Maori Village and Colonial Village exhibition just down the hill from where we are living and had a traditional Hungi meal. So far things seems to be going well. It will be nice to be settled in a more permanent place and have a stable job, then we can check out some of the country side.

Sunrise in Sidney

Monday we we started the trek to NZ. We left early in the morning when Sam dropped us off at Denver International Airport and arrived about 9am to spend the day in the Bay Area. First we took the Bart to Berkeley, CA and wandered around, ducking into the library when it started to rain. Then when the weather cleared up we took the BART and the bus to the Fisherman's wharf. Back at the airport before our 11 pm departure to Sidney we meet up with Michelle and then went to a little restaurant in the airport to watch the Colorado Rockies make it to the world series. In the restaurant was a band called Tesla that was on the same flight to Sidney with us. The flight boarded about 600 or more people knee to back with every seat full and we headed towards Sydney. We left the sparkling lights of San Francisco and were meet at the end of the flight with a beautiful sunrise over Sydney. The opera house was beautiful. We then took an Air New Zealand flight about 2 hours later and arrived in Christchurch. We made it through customs with out much ado. They checked out tent and hiking shoes for un-wanted biological material and stamped work visas in our pass ports. John and Moya picked us up at the airport. We are staying there a few days. We also meet their son Jeremy.