December 6

Arrival in New Zealand: Christchurch

The moon set bright red before dawn. December 5 had disappeared upon crossing the International Date Line. Breakfast was served at 4AM, New Zealand time. I had mixed grill (sausages and ham) with potatoes and baked beans. A weird breakfast, but tastier than I was expecting for New Zealand food. Customs forms were distributed. Anyone with nothing to declare would almost have to be lying, since they ask you to check boxes if you have anything made from plants or animals.

In the flight magazine, I read about a company, Trusty Rentals, that advertized cars beginning at $25 per day, including everything. A New Zealand dollar was about 68 cents in US money, so that is not bad. For the first time, I began to think seriously about renting a car. I really like having a car if possible, for the freedom it gives, especially when trying to find wildlife, such as penguins, or stopping to take pictures. This was the first company I saw that had a reasonable price. There was still the concern about driving on the left: I would have to give some thought to that.

We arrived in Aukland, New Zealands largest city by far, at 6:30 AM. Customs was quick: not many questions. They attached a little tab to my passport. At the domestic desk, I was told my flight to Christchurch had been canceled due to an Air Traffic Controller's strike. All flights outside major cities were canceled as well. I was glad I was not planning to rely heavily on air travel. I went to the domestic terminal and got a standby flight for 9:30 AM. This was no problem, because the flight was far from full. It was quite warm outside. The flight took off on schedule, and had beautiful views of the mountains and volcanoes along the way.

At the Christchurch airport, I changed a bit of money and bought a phone card, which are convenient and keep you from needing a lot of change, and then used it to call Trusty Rentals, the rental car company I had read about earlier. They said the $25 rate was for a manual, but I could get an automatic for $30, with unlimited km's and insurance included, provided one would come in this afternoon as scheduled. This sounded like a great idea. Surely I could get used to driving on the left. It seemed a bit scary, but would be an interesting experience. I could use the car to camp if I wanted too.

I picked up some brochures and bus schedules, to see what bus travel would be like. It looked expensive, but there were plenty of routes, and this certainly looked like a viable alternative. I would not have to keep the car the whole time, but would use it on the South Island, where I planned to spend most of my time.

I got a shuttle to my motel for $8. It was a simple but nice motel called Alexander Court, and was not cheap, about $82 NZ. It was nice, however, with attractive new furniture in the living room, a separate bedroom, and a full kitchen. This was the only hotel I planned to stay at, and I had booked it in advance. The shuttle driver suggested that bed and breakfasts are a good deal, often around $40 a night, but I planned to stay mostly at hostels after tonight, which are around $15 to $20 a night for a dormitory bed, and have kitchens. But tonight, it would be nice to have some time alone after the long, cramped flight.

I called Trusty Rentals to give them my phone number, so they could tell me when the car comes in. Then I called Mt. Cook YHA to make reservations for tomorrow. This is one of the premier Youth Hostels in New Zealand, and the only budget accomodations at Mt. Cook aside from the campground, so reservations were recommended. I had no problem with this. I also reserved a Dec. 16 cruise on the Milford Sound, which may not have been necessary to do so soon, but I would have only one day there and did not want to miss it. I had already reserved two nights at the hostel in Milford, but called them back to change it to one night, since I needed time to get to Queenstown between the Milford and Routeburn treks, and there wasn't much else to do at Milford anyway, unless I wanted to do some sea kayaking.

I called around to a number of other car rental companies in the phone book, but all were more expensive than Trusty. Eventually Trusty called me back, and told me the car was in, and they would deliver it tomorrow at 10 AM. They said it was a small Mazda hatchback. I was a little concerned about the hatchback, but they said it had plenty of room for luggage in a covered compartment.

Now that my car was taken care of, I took a walk to explore downtown Christchurch. It was about a 15 minute walk, and along the way, I took special care to see how the traffic was, and to think what driving on the left would feel like. It would be really weird. Walking was bad enough. I went to Cathedral Square to see the church, and climbed the tower. The view was not too impressive today because it was cloudy. The church was decorated inside for Christmas. Then I went out and saw a postal store, so I bought stamps and a postcard to send home. I walked over to the arts center, some attractive old Gothic buildings, and returned along the Avon River, which is narrow, fast-moving and shallow, and lined with parks. Gondola rides are available there. It was very picturesque.

I looked for an Indonesian/Indian restaurant on Columbus Street mentioned in Lonely Planet, but it was gone. Then I went back to my motel, and picked up some breakfast and lunch supplies at a nearby `dairy', or convenience store. I noticed that the most common flavor of potato chips was chicken. They must have weird tastes here. Also, everything was rather expensive, even after adjusting for the exchange rate. There was a nice cat outside my motel room. I sat with it a while.

I walked down to the Main Street Cafe, a `gourmet' vegetarian restaurant, and ordered a spinach/red pesto/brie pie slice with three salads for $15. It was more than I could eat, and I stuffed myself. I took another walk downtown to let dinner settle. There, I stopped at a brew-pub, Dux DeLux, and tried their Hereford Bitter and Sou'wester Stout. Both were fine beers. I went home and turned on the TV, but was too sleepy to watch it, so I went to bed at 9 PM. It was not yet dark out.

Copyright Scott A. Yost, 1996. All rights reserved.