On Friday, I departed Mackay, kind of on a nervous note. I had a dream about missing my plane to New Zealand recently and it hung like a cloud over my consciousness for some reason. First thing that morning, the taxi was late picking me up, making it a close checkin. Then when I got to the Brisbane airport, I had to re-check in my luggage, as I booked the domestic and international legs separately. To my horror and for the first time in my life, my checked luggage was lost. Waiting for the missing bag and then reporting it missing also made me cut it too close for comfort for my Air New Zealand flight. I was standing in the checkin line when I was paged over the PA. I was the last person left to be checked in so they bumped me to the front of the line, thank goodness.
So despite my bad dream, I arrived in Christchurch, albeit without the majority of my stuff. I shuttled it to the car rental office and they actually handed me keys to a car! They had no idea how unprepared I was for this challenge. I've only driven in Australia a handful of times, once of which I was involved in a car crash (not my fault), so I was a little skittish and it took some guts for me to attempt driving to a destination on the complete other side of a city unknown to me without a GPS or human navigator, on the side of the road foreign to my senses. My first turn was a left hand one, which was nice. I like those. I was promptly delayed by a man shooing a duck family across the road to safety. All road traffic was halted. I was definitely in NZ.
Somehow, I have no idea how, I made it to the B&B on the other side of town, without making a single wrong turn. I'm still trying to figure out how that happened.
My mom had already arrived earlier that day and was enjoying the beautiful scenery around the B&B, which was tucked into the side of a hill, among beautiful trees and flowers, with a view of the sea nearby. Our hosts were lovely and helpful, and the house was very homey.
We spend two full days sightseeing in Christchurch, even though I was slightly disappointed in the city. Maybe it's due to so many businesses being shut down due to earthquake damage, but it seemed slightly boring and hum drum. Despite that minor disappointment, we still had a great time on a wildlife cruise, where we got to see a breed of dolphin only found in NZ,
rode a gondola up to beautiful views of the city and harbor,
visited the Saturday markets, explored the local beaches,
and toured the CHC botanical gardens.
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