Transfer from Sydney to Christchurch – 24th February 2010

Got up at 5.45am! Checked out at 6:45am and got the shuttle to the airport. Picked up at four other hotels so had a last trip around Sydney. Flight to Christchurch left pretty much on time at 10.15am. The in-flight, back of the seat, Information – Entertainment – Communications (ICE) system in these Emirates planes is really good. You can check where you are, where you are going, how high, air temp, air speed, ground speed, altitude, time to destination, time at destination, arrival time and so on. You can select camera views front and below. If you want to pay you can make calls and send/receive emails. But the best is a massive array of films, videos, TV shows, radio stations and the one that has occupied me most of all – every single top twenty hit since the hit parade came to life in 1952. Talk about “in my element”. Hip, swinging, groovy, cool, bad, and whatever young folk say nowadays. I’m currently up to 1984 after a full 24 hours flying time!

Anyhow, we are now in Christchurch and what a lovely city it is. We were amazed to find it was 32degC when we got here. Clear blue sky and bright sunshine. The drive from the airport to the city centre was excellent. The suburbs are elegant and the road tree lined. In fact this is just what I expected of New Zealand.

Christchurch is a classic grid city. All right angles and blocks. In the centre is the cathedral square. There is a historic tram service running around in a loop. Most likely we will have a spin tomorrow. We are in the Copthorne Central, right opposite the town hall and gardens. The river runs through!! You can hire a punt on the river. Very Cambridge like. You can also take a gondola trip up a nearby mountain so we will be doing a bit of that if we have time. Now back at the hotel and typing this and will shortly go on line and publish it and see if any emails will download. Much better connection prices here. $10 for two hours with a wired connection in the room. That’s better.