Monthly Archives: October 2016

The power of Christ compels you

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Christchurch Cathedral was not spared by the Almighty during the earthquake

When Mona, myself and Juni woke around 12 we realized parents had been rather quiet as they left five hours earlier. We had a slow breakfast, chilled and in the end left the apartment after some last minute research around 14:30.

13102016 - Christchurch - _MG_7580We started with a tram tour on some old line they kept running – it was shorter than expected but nice to get a feel for the city centre walking around. I showed Mona some of the areas I walked by yesterday and then we headed out to the botanic gardens.13102016 - Christchurch - _MG_7588

Christchurch is a bit strange with some weird post-apocalyptic aura with broken buildings, the container-built centre, but not end of civilization style since there are lots of ongoing building projects – as well as tearing down old unsafe structures. New buildings are not allowed to be higher than 28 metres (with one or two special exceptions) – which makes an interesting skyline.

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Not sure if this is restored or not – looked rather empty though.

2011-02-22 23:50 the quake hit Christchurch with a registered 6.3 on the Richter scale. 70% of buildings in inner center was destroyed. 185 casualties, 1500-2000 wounded in a city of 360 000. About 10k people left that year after the quake, which made Christchurch drop from being the second biggest city to the third (Wellington is now second).

After being (semi) cultural we went home about the same time as my parents got back from their trip. They had had a great time, although going both back and forth the same day was potentially a bit overkill. They were kind enough to babysit Juni while Mona and I went to have Indian food at Corianders – which was really really good and to top it up had nice drinks. I also love the whole ‘no tip’ culture, there is no requests for tip, and most places don’t even allow you for providing tip and if you try they find it almost more of a hassle than gift so we simply paid prices that were put on price lists and the staff still were able to live on their wages – amazing concept which I would like to see conquer the rest of the world at earliest convenience.

Customs and Christchurch

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Apartment view

Apartment view

Before landing there were a bit of paperwork to fill out, and after checking with the cabin crew it seemed to be excessively careful so “food” was filled out for candy that had never been unboxed etc. We quickly found all our luggage and now was to go through the customs with our paperwork. We presented our papers and luggage and they explained that it was fine with the candy, Mona had a moisturizer that got caught in the x-ray but it was still permitted so all in all we were let in and everyone were happy.

After us was a family from a culture where one often responds with “yes yes” to questions even if one doesn’t know or understand. Combine that with your helpful wife packing a dozen clementines in your backpack and you have a failsafe way to get a hefty fine of 400 NZD and strong wording.

With all paperwork sorted out we only had 5 hours to kill before we would have access to the AirBnb apartment in central Christchurch we booked the day before, and not having slept more than half an hour on the plan the original plan of strolling the cafes and shops seemed less pleasant. We bought two prepaid sim-cards with decent dataplans (only name and e-mail wanted – no registration with id here) and then secured a space to doze off until lunch at the airport. The ladies got some sleep and then we had a shuttle into Christchurch.

World War I memorial survived the Earthquake

World War I memorial repaired and strengthened after the Earthquake in 2011

At the apartment we rested a bit and then took a stroll in the earthquake struck city while Mona continued sleeping. We got some food at a supermarket and went home to make a quick late dinner. My father, per tradition, configured Tintin and friends and after a family dinner with some beers we felt at home.12102016 - iPhone NZ - IMG_3458

A few hours of reading and writing blogs before hitting the beds – Mona and I felt lucky we weren’t scheduled for an early taxi at 07 as my parents who were going to the Tranzalpine.

Melbourne

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Breakfast

Second breakfast as the locals say

For the first time in a while the alarm was digital which felt a bit weird but we quickly packed our stuff and headed out for a super breakfast at one of Jonte’s favorites down by the esplanade, The Pond Cafe. It did not disappoint, and we were now well loaded for taking the train to Melbourne and chill there over the day and then the midnight flight to Christchurch, New Zealand.

As the train got closer to Southern Cross in Melbourne it became more evident that this city had close to 4M in pop, a tad larger than Torquay. Per Jonte’s instructions we did not user the automatic lockers but went to the lockers next to SkyBus where one could get a cage for 20 USD by an actual person which fit our 9 bags (traveling light is a long gong memory) snugly.

Melbourne. We need to spend more time here but a the initial impression is I really like this city. We started by taking the old school tram (with audio pointing out areas and viewpoints, sort of like a mini hop-on hop-off but it’s free and an old tram) round the inner city to get a feel for the city and then strolled around in the districts that caught or eyes, ears or simply was nearby.

Parliament

Parliament of Victoria – love he lampposts

Some scattered thoughts

Trams in the inner city core are free. For all. Public bathrooms are also free in this area.

Bicycle helmets – everybody is wearing them and I really want one with cat ears for Juni when she grows up.

This is a scene from the dream I had were Trump won, just before the four horsemen rode in.

St Patrick’s Cathedral from a future where Trump won, just before the four horsemen rides in.

Architecture – it reminded me a bit about Barcelona (or more likely the other way around), shapes and colors are experimented with for some the high-risers but there is also a mix of the old building sprinkled out. I really liked it.11102016 - Melbourne - _MG_7568

Chinatown, or perhaps more correctly “blocks of delicious food from all over asia” was huge and I could probably get used to live there. Next time we will go for dumplings, this time it was chicken soup for yours truly and Mona had Bibimbap.

On the other hand I completely understand why Jonte moved away from Melbourne to Torquay as well. It’s much more busy than easy-going surf, but it’s still pretty easy-going compared to other cities.

Roof-top bar by the owner who refused to sell his place

Roof-top bar at the owner who refused to sell

After walking around for a few hours and shops started to close we decided it was enough for one day and grabbed us some food and took the bus to the Airport – with plenty of time to spare. Which turned out to be a really good idea (again).

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Apparently Jetstar is the Ryan Air equivalent in all douchebaggery manners and of course they latched on to the fact we only had a single ticket to New Zealand and explained we would not be allowed to check-in unless we bought a return ticket which a colleague of them of course was happy to help us out with. I still don’t know if this is a formal requirement, but the fact that this is mentioned to me as I check in and not while I book my ticket (and present my nationality) was a bit irritating and the general attitude of their staff is just amazing.

So armed with laptop and a calendar chasing wi-fi while the clock runs down before last time to check in we finally managed to book some tickets with Emirates through random travel agencies on the net (no way in hell I would give more money to Jetstar if I could avoid it). So much for “see how we feel and decide later” – and of course the max 7kg carry-on luggage could not be shared between us so we needed to move around in our carry-on bags. Because reasons.

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On the plus side, the actual airport staff was really nice and “baby coming through” was yelled as we jumped all sorts of queues and in general got the VIP treatment. Well, of course the infamous border security had to ruin the trend but we had everything in order so no real hassle there.

As we finally boarded the plane and realized there were quite a few empty seats left and our gamble with leaving an empty seat in the middle paid off. I quickly switched to the row behind and stretched out over three seats for winding down with my book and tried to get some sleep – next up New Zealand…