Weather - warm & overcast 19C
Well the time has almost arrived to wish beautiful New Zealand goodbye :( This is our final day in Christchurch before we fly home this afternoon (5.55pm NZ time) and arrive in Sydney (6pm Au time).
This morning we awoke at our usual early time, so began rearranging suitcases & retrieving passports, flight schedules etc, which have not been required for a few weeks. Then we showered & headed off for our last hotel buffet breakfast in a while. I must confess we are over the hot buffet breakfasts as the. Food is often only Luke warm and over cooked. Luckily there have been many fruit & cereal options so we usually stick with them.
We have until 10.30 before we check out, then we store our luggage at the hotel until our airport pickup at 2pm. So plenty of time to fill in before we go & not much to do in central Christchurch. One building which was here last week has been demolished & another large office block is being knocked down as I write this. It is an eerie sight as we sit here drinking coffee, the sound & sight of the huge building being rendered to rubble.
Next is the very limited souvenir shopping. We have really restricted what we buy along the way due to luggage restrictions & the fact they are the same everywhere. We will just grab a few small items here in Christchurch before we go. So family & friends be warned ..... There will be no big presents from this trip (maybe just a tacky souvenir)! Anyway Christmas is just over so who needs more dust collectors?
Waiting ...... Waiting ...... Once you know the holiday is over all you want to do is go home, so all the waiting around in hotel lobbies and airports is very, very frustrating. We are back at our hotel, checked out, so no fixed abode. The very limited container shops are just starting to open now 11am) so we have finished our shopping and nothing left to do but wait. The hotel lobby is full of Americans from the Deep South who have been here all week (they were here last Sunday when we were here) at some sort of religious convention. They are as loud as & blessing anyone who should cross their path. There would be at least 100 of them & most are coloured. I am trying to read the tags on their a yards without looking to obvious to see exactly why they are all here. Think it says "Safeguard Your HEART" .... they sure are noisy! Just overheard some say they were heading to Sydney this afternoon. Will be just our luck to be on the same flight!
I have just taken a few more photos of the beautiful old church in the centre of Christchurch that was so badly damaged in the recent earthquakes. Apparently they started to demolish it, then there was a protest so it is just sitting there as a partial ruin until it is decided what to do. I will attach some photos.
Finally at the airport (Christchurch) after a delayed, hair raising shuttle ride from the hotel. All checked in and relaxing with our last NZ cider.
Just discovered free Internet so will send this now.
Almost the end of our holiday!
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