New Zealand 2 – Arrival

Flying over Southwest America (Grand Canyon, California’s mountains, etc) will never get old, today I learned that neither will flying over New Zealand’s South Island. Previously, Colorado trumped my scenery list, but after staring at this most of the way for the short hour flight Colorado has to take second place.

Mighty Mountains

I managed to make it to the hotel I’ll be staying at, unpacked, checked out my room situation (clean, tidy, big shower, KING sized bed–really? Keith better watch out when I come back accustomed to all this space). Oh yes, and housekeeping left me a warm delicious muffin with a glass of delicious tasting “trim” (think skim) milk.

The remnants...

And when I checked out the TV channels I found the Texas Rangers…

Rangers?

It’s also comforting to also see a repeated Celtics/Heats game currently playing. The commentators are speaking in a language I’ve never heard before, but still nice to hear “…KG!!!…Paul Pierce!…” etc, every once in a while.

Having a whole day ahead of me, I did what any typical female would do, check out the local mall (manicurist within walking distance – check).  As excited as my cab driver was, I did not heed his suggestions to check out the McCafe part of McDonald’s. He seemed so pleased with his assumption that there “are no McCafe’s in America” that I didn’t really want to crush his expectations. Anyways, the mall was typical, despite having completely different store names.  I went and grabbed a few grocery items plus a brand new recyclable shopping bag (NZ’s been charging 5cents extra for plastic bags long before Maryland & DC started up).

After a long internal struggle in my room I conquered my fear and became determined to get into my backwards Ford Focus rental and charge down the left side of the road. As long as I kept saying “left, left, left” in my head, this really wasn’t a bad experience. I drove myself to the park and had a very pleasant walk.

Autumn is arriving in Christchurch

There was a beautiful rose garden as well–

The Rose Garden

I managed to stumble into the CBD (Central Business District) and immediately saw the fences, warning signs, and many, many crack patches.  I guess I will be experiencing this more first-hand over the next few months!

Grabbed some dinner and managed to watch TV for a short period of time before unknowingly passing out. Luckily, I heard my phone ring so I had a chance to meet a couple of my team members when they arrived back from their long-weekend vacations. The real work starts tomorrow!