Strolling to kill time: Christchurch Day 3

We checked out of our hotel first thing and left our bags in the lobby so we could maximize the last few hours we had in Christchurch. We walked into town and caught the free Shuttle bus to Cathedral Square again. We did breakfast at the Yellow Rocket cafe, which, God bless 'em, had everything bagels. Oh, how I have missed you! Gretchen (prepare for a shock) had the pancakes. We enjoyed breakfast outside right on the square and watched the city wake up. Right in Cathedral Square, there is an open-air market with jewelry and art and the like, as well as a giant chess set (Tom!), an Asian guy playing New Zealand music on an Irish flute, and of course the beautiful cathedral, all in a lovely square with leafy trees and important-looking statues. Yeah, you could do worse for a place to chow down on a bagel and schmear and a long black (NZ-ese for "American black coffee" as opposed to espresso).

We popped into the cathedral after breakfast for a quick visit. It definitely brought to mind cathedrals in the UK. There were beautiful stained-glass windows, people buried in the walls, and the requisite collection bucket. It was tiny compared to Bath or Salisbury in the UK and St John the Divine in NYC, so we were done after half an hour.

We didn't get to be rowed gently along the river by toned young men. Booooo!

We headed over to the river Avon in search of the punters, but it must not be their season yet. So we didn't get to be rowed gently along the river by toned young men. Booooo! Instead, we went shopping at the stores that closed at 7pm last night and generally just checked things out. I will tell you, Chch has some terrifically-named pubs. In addition to the cool pubs we visited so far (Viaduct and Liquidity), we saw an Irish pub named simply "The Bog" and a fabulous US western-style bar named "Mad Cow." Wonderful!

We wandered into the info center again and booked a shuttle from our hotel to the airport, and then continued our walkabout. You guys, highlight of the trip: NZ$1 milkshakes! They were a great mid-morning snack. We picked up some last-minute adorable souvenirs on the way back to the hotel.

I have not mentioned this, but it is certainly a point to ponder. The Thai place where we ate last night and a lot of the other ones have big signs in the window saying that they are "fully licensed." We saw it in Auckland as well. Can anyone shed light on this? Is there really a danger of unlicensed Thai restauranteurs coming over on pirate ships or something and giving Thai food a bad name? I highly doubt this. How can anyone mess up pad thai? Perhaps I am missing a fine point here. If anyone can educate me, please write lorabarnhart at gmail dot com.

The shuttle pulled up right on time and we crammed on with 10 other tourists, actually 10 people traveling together from the UK with the Friendship Force, which is a sort of home-swap vacation organization. The people were so sweet! I sat next to (get ready for it) Ken and Irene Shakespeare (I KNOW!!!) from Somerset, Gretchen sat in the front, and we all had a lovely conversation about traveling. At one point, I think Ken said he wanted to share my bed, but he was so polite about it I didn't know how to say no.

At the airport, there were a few hassles including a misunderstanding about our baggage allowance (although once again, we managed to put on more baggage than we were allowed without paying overage...I don't feel too bad because there are lots of times I don't use the maximum amount, and hey, I had to pack for 3 different climates!), an inefficient manner of collecting the departure tax, and not enough customs cards by the pens, so I was ready to leave New Zealand. Once we got through the x-ray screening (back to near-US levels of hysteria, although we did get to keep our shoes on during the process), we had just enough time to grab some takeaway food to eat on the plane and board for Brisbane. As we took off, I was already looking forward to getting the much-coveted Australia passport stamp.