Kia Ora, Aotearoa: We Regret to Inform You...

...that Air New Zealand flight 83 bound for Auckland has crashed in the South Pacific.

At least I had a window seat!

Well Toto, we're not in Kansas any more!

Apart from being long, the trip down was uneventful as airline experiences go. Since our travel experience did not even touch a US airline, things went smoothly and painlessly. We flew out of Seattle on Air Canada. Check-in took about 10 minutes. Canada Customs had no line and the Vancouver terminal was uncrowded.

Our Air New Zealand flight to Auckland left on time, my request for a better seat was accommodated, the food was no less edible than most any other airline and we arrived in Auckland 45 minutes early. Our flight from Auckland to Christchurch left on time, and having stopped in the duty-free store on the way to baggage claim, a New Zealand Customs officer was just loading our last bag onto a cart. Everyone else on the (full) flight had already gotten their bags and was long gone. At home we'd probably still be waiting for our bags. We did, however, have a bit of a delay getting through New Zealand's Bio-security section.

The Customs arrival card was about twice as big as it was the last time we came (including a check box for whether or not we were attending the Rugby World Cup). They ask questions like "Are you bringing any hiking boots?". "Are you bringing any camping equipment (tent)?". "Are you bringing any fishing equipment?". Of course we had to say yes to all of the above.

Since pretty much everything thrives here, the government has to be ever vigilant against importing non-indigenous life forms (seeds carried in caked mud on boots, etc). They inspected our boots, all of my fishing equipment (searching for signs of Didymo) and the tent. They found fir needles inside one of Cynthia's boots so they took all of our stuff away and had it cleaned. Including our tent. Quite nice of them, actually.

Next we picked up our rental car, the mighty Toyota Corolla Hatch. Unfortunately we got the Government White instead of the classy silver as shown in their promotional material. But as the guy pointed out when I complained "No worries mate. Ya can't see what color it is from the inside now can ya?" They even managed to fit all of our stuff in it.

The whole driving on the left side of the road came right back to me and we were off to the bonny Chardonnay Motor Lodge, adjacent to the Rosebank Winery.

Since we were both able to snooze a bit on the flight we were surprisingly cogent so decided to take a walk in an adjoining park called The Groynes. It's quite an odd sensation to have suddenly arrived at "spring", with all of its attendant blossoms and baby creatures...and hay fever!

Evil space sheep with laser eyes

Black swans with swanlings(?)

This guy would get in your face every time you stepped in their direction

Remember the story of the ugly duckling who turned out to be a swan? Well, I don't want to hurt the little guy's feelings, but mom and pop ain't much to look at either!