It had to happen sooner or later, this was our very first holiday that got started with an “Oooops”. That moment came in the taxi on the way to the airport.
We were picked up at the time we booked, 6pm, and were 3/4 of the way to the airport when the “Oooops” came from Deb in the back seat. The 8pm flight we, were on our way to get, was scheduled to arrive in Melbourne at 8pm, not leave Adelaide at 8pm as we (Deb) thought. 🙂
It’s moments like this that we are really glad we fly Qantas. We headed straight to the service desk and a charming and understanding woman sorted us out in no time on to the next flight to Melbourne, for no extra charge. At check in we were asked if we would mind sitting in exit row seats. Of course we said, “No problem”.
We had big “Airport hugs” to celebrate the restart of our holiday.
We arrived in the Qantas Club just in time to see “Kiss” getting into an Audi van on their way into Adelaide to sing at the Clipsal concert. To my surprise they didn’t need any wheel chair access!! 🙂
So all is good, except with the antibiotics I’m on there will be no airport burbs this time.
Arrived in Melbourne at about 10pm Melb time. Got through customs etc with no problems and went searching for the Qantas lounge. Looks like our luck ran out for the day. The lounge is shut! I guess thats why we have a Jetsar flight instead of a Qantas one. 🙁
Not all bad, we have seat 1A and 1B, I suspect it is not an upgrade but an all economy flight, lol. Gate lounges are a very good reason you should join the Qantas Club.
As I expected/guessed, it was an all economy flight, VERY basic service. The Captain came on the PA just after we took off and infomed us all that due to extra fuel requirements he had off loaded all the cargo and some passenger bags. Those affected would find out when their bags didn’t make it onto the luggage carousel at Christchurch.
Lucky for us, ours were their, even if it did take a while for the second one to appear!
Customs and immigration were a breeze, mmm, duty free was easy too, 🙂 . after picking up the hire car, a Toyota Highlander (Kluger for those back home) we headed off to try and see another first morning sunrise in NZ.
We struggled to program the Sat Nav, but eventually were on our way to Waimairi Beach. We got there with a few little hiccups and after a short walk up the sand dunes found a rugged looking beach strewn with driftwood and all sorts of debris from the ocean. There was about a 4′ swell running and a few brave souls were out getting an early wave. The sunset was disappointing, hidden behind clouds such that the day fizzled into existance. But there we were sitting on bleached driftwood logs watching the day come to life. It’s got to be one of the best ways to start a day.
After a while we drove down to the next beach, New Brighton. It has a new long jetty jutting out into the ocean. After we parked we both decided it was a good time to grab a bit of sleep. 2 hours later, we woke, a bit refreshed and began to take in the day again. There were lots of people out in the surf, most surfing, but there was a couple of paddle boarders and one guy in a kayak. The end of the jetty was crammed with people fishing. Most of them also had crab nets ove the side, it looked like they were after small sandcrabs, but not for bait!
At about 10:20am we decided we probably should head to the airport to pick up John and Georgie (our friends from America). Deb checked her paperwork again and it seems their flight got it at 10:30, so here we were, 20km from the airport, Ooooops ( hey that sounds familiar). We got to the airport in good time and Deb collected John and Georgie without any problems. From there we went to try and go to a farmers market in Christchurch, but it was impossible to get a park within a reasonable distance so we decided just to got to our hotel, The Merivale Manor. It is a very well appointed cross between a hotel, a serviced appartment and B & B. After dropping off our bags and freshing up a tad, we went off and did a bit of shopping and sorted out our WiFi Broadband for the trip. After dropping the shopping off, we headed into the city for a bit of a look around. We were told there was a Lantern Festival in the eastern parklands which should not be missed. We got into town without any hassles and eventually parked and went to the “Container Shopping Centre”. It is literally that, a reasonable large shopping precinct made up entirely of shipping containers. It grew from an idea for a quick fix to replace the devastated retail area after the devastating earthquake of 22 Feb 2011. It is a great idea and the area was buzzing with tourists from all over the world. We love it when you get into an area where there might be up to 7 or 8 different languages being spoken.
After a bit of lunch we walked around the “Red Zone” the area of Christchurch hardest hit by the earthquakes. It is a very large area affected and in a lot of areas it looks as though it may have only just recently happened. The effects seemed to be very random, with a big mix of new and old building suffering effects from cosmetic to total destruction. There are a few memorials around the area, the most graphic being the one opposite the TV Building that collapsed killing a lot of people. The memorial is in the form of a sculpture consisting of 185 chairs of every design (from a baby capsule to wheelchair and barstool) painted stark white, set in an orderly manner on 185 square meters of lawn. This was meant to represent the randomness of the event and the people killed. A graphic reminder of how fragile life can be.
We called an end to our sightseeing a bit after 4, had a bit of a drive-by the Lantern Festival (It looked like it might have been good, but they were packing it up anyway! lol) and then headed back to the hotel for a break before dinner tonight.
We are all looking forward to a good nights sleep, I think Deb and I got about 3 to 3 1/2hrs last night and this morning and J & G got about the same during their epic trip from Minnesota (I think they had around at 30+ hrs travel since they left home, including 3 flights and a very long transit in LA).
