A Garden State boy in the Garden City.
Today at 3pm Chi-time I arrived in Christchurch, NZ, the “Garden City”. I can finally stretch my legs, take a shower and walk outside.
The flight from ORD to LAX wasn’t too bad, but man I got screwed on the flight to Auckland. The double-decker 747 was booked solid, not a free seat left, so we were all packed in like sardines. If that wasn’t bad enough though, the dude next to me was a rather large individual. Large enough that getting in and out of his seat was a difficult procedure and his body kinda overflowed onto my armrest. At least I got to see 2 amusing movies, “Wedding Crashers” and “War of the Worlds”. Actually, I think the airline should reconsider showing disaster movies on airplanes. We hit turbulence right about the time a wrecked plane showed up in the movie … it made me a little anxious. I also checked the movies they’ll be showing on my way back, and one of them is the thriller “Red Eye” … really.
The flight to Christchurch was very nice though; plenty of space, a short nap and a great view. Check out some pictures I took as we flew over the south island (Auckland is on the north island and Christchurch on the south).
A funky looking lake …
There were a number of these awesome rivers flowing west to east ….
Snow capped mountains in the distance …
I swear, from ~2000 feet NZ looks like the greatest Extreme Bocce Field I’ve ever seen … you reading this Rosh? It looks like a giant mini-golf course, mountains, creeks, flat fields, all they need is to put up some giant cartoon figures with tunnels through their legs …
Thankfully all of my “luggage” arrived safe, although the TSA popped open 2 of my cargo cases and took a peek … they didn’t close one of them up as well as I would have liked, but oh well. They also left these little calling cards in the cases … “Hi, your privacy has been officially violated by the TSA. Don’t worry; nothing obscene was done to your personal property. Have a safe and happy voyage!” … I paraphrase of course.
I was greeted at Christchurch by a Raytheon Polar Services Official and shuttled to my hotel, the Heritage in Cathedral Square. HOLY SHIT MY ROOM IS THE SHIT!!!! Check it out, the room is huge, the bed is gigantic! I’m on the top floor, room 1106 if you wanna swing by and party. The view is pretty awesome too. I have windows on the north and the east. When I got here I promptly took a hot shower and put on one of the oversized robes they kindly provided for me ;)
Too much bed for lonely old me … I guess ill have to sleep diagonally!
The view north …
The view east, I really like the part of town that goes up the hill.
Ok, I’m gonna go run around and see what this place is all about. I need to get a calling card and a power converter too cause they have these screwy outlets. Hopefully by tonight Ill have some more pictures of the city and some of its finer sights.
The flight from ORD to LAX wasn’t too bad, but man I got screwed on the flight to Auckland. The double-decker 747 was booked solid, not a free seat left, so we were all packed in like sardines. If that wasn’t bad enough though, the dude next to me was a rather large individual. Large enough that getting in and out of his seat was a difficult procedure and his body kinda overflowed onto my armrest. At least I got to see 2 amusing movies, “Wedding Crashers” and “War of the Worlds”. Actually, I think the airline should reconsider showing disaster movies on airplanes. We hit turbulence right about the time a wrecked plane showed up in the movie … it made me a little anxious. I also checked the movies they’ll be showing on my way back, and one of them is the thriller “Red Eye” … really.
The flight to Christchurch was very nice though; plenty of space, a short nap and a great view. Check out some pictures I took as we flew over the south island (Auckland is on the north island and Christchurch on the south).
A funky looking lake …
There were a number of these awesome rivers flowing west to east ….
Snow capped mountains in the distance …
I swear, from ~2000 feet NZ looks like the greatest Extreme Bocce Field I’ve ever seen … you reading this Rosh? It looks like a giant mini-golf course, mountains, creeks, flat fields, all they need is to put up some giant cartoon figures with tunnels through their legs …
Thankfully all of my “luggage” arrived safe, although the TSA popped open 2 of my cargo cases and took a peek … they didn’t close one of them up as well as I would have liked, but oh well. They also left these little calling cards in the cases … “Hi, your privacy has been officially violated by the TSA. Don’t worry; nothing obscene was done to your personal property. Have a safe and happy voyage!” … I paraphrase of course.
I was greeted at Christchurch by a Raytheon Polar Services Official and shuttled to my hotel, the Heritage in Cathedral Square. HOLY SHIT MY ROOM IS THE SHIT!!!! Check it out, the room is huge, the bed is gigantic! I’m on the top floor, room 1106 if you wanna swing by and party. The view is pretty awesome too. I have windows on the north and the east. When I got here I promptly took a hot shower and put on one of the oversized robes they kindly provided for me ;)
Too much bed for lonely old me … I guess ill have to sleep diagonally!
The view north …
The view east, I really like the part of town that goes up the hill.
Ok, I’m gonna go run around and see what this place is all about. I need to get a calling card and a power converter too cause they have these screwy outlets. Hopefully by tonight Ill have some more pictures of the city and some of its finer sights.
posted by Robert B. Friedman at 5:08 PM
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