Christchurch

28/9/08 - My 1st solo trip: Christchurch, New Zealand. So i got onto a noon flight @ bout 1930hrs, there was a slight 20mins delay and soon the plane took off. The time required to hit my destination was bout 10Hrs. With the GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) of +13 hence they are 5hrs ahead of the local time. Getting kinda lost now huh.. you do the Math! anyway by the time i reached CHC its was bout 11.30AM their time. If anyone is to head there soon i would recommend you take peek out of the plane's windows cause ull get to see snow! ok not snow as in flake form but snow covered mountains haha!

snow covered mountains, a view from E plane.

Our stay was @ Millennium Hotel. Its located on 14, Cathedral Square. Thats my room...kinda small yea? strangely they got me a really huge wardrobe and theres a interesting thing bout their TV channels... once i flick the TV on it goes...

TV :"Welcome to Blablabla... we've got blabla movies and great Adult Movies! (the best part is the fella on the other side of the TV even says - Do not worry it would not show on your bill so NO ONE KNOWS!) ha! give me a break... like the lady @ the counter would no raise her brows when she see the difference in price one is paying for "the extra channel" PFFff... they cost more than the normal movies.

the peaceful streets of Cathedral Square

The cathedral to the rear

Anyway i took a quick shower and soon i was out on the streets of Cathedral Square with a few colleagues. The 1st thing we do was to snap a few pictures of the area before we head out for lunch. Strangely even tho we were overseas we still had the craving for local Asian food haha... Jap and Thai food was what we got in the end. We went round the corner to look for stuff that we could buy... Samantha was hunting for Manuka Honey for her mom and boyfriend while Meivi and I were just waiting for something to call out to us...BUY ME...

its really cold out there...

we had to get a cup of hot choco... once the breeze hits ya... BRRrrr...

As you walk along you would actually notice the many sights and sounds of CHC eg. ull have a few fellas preaching out LOUD! in bread daylight right in front of the cathedral, then you will also see roadside performers (i saw a lady playing the guitar and blowing away on the harmonica @ the same time, shees good!) and ull also see people playing XL size chest!

XL size chess game!

we practically finished the streets by mid noon and so we decided to hop onto the free shuttle bus that brings us further out so we could visit the mart to grab some rations and stuff. The mart is huge, it looks really simple from he outside but once you head in its like a factory lotsa open spare and food stacking up really high. The cool thing bout that place is that there are no cashiers to help you with you stuff everything you buy is paid for @ a kios thats DIY. Not bad huh saving cost on human labour.

Pak'n Save

Meivi tryin to destroy my picture! Sam got caught off guard haha!

this cool panda artwork was found on the floor @ the busstop.

After some grocery shopping we were on our way back to the hotel. Got like an hour or twos rest and we met up with the rest of our colleagues for dinner! 400g Beef Flinstone yummy! its a pity i didnt bring my camera along for dinner! BOOooo... oh the best part was everything was -50% for us WooHoo! i love my job!

The rest of the say was spent chit chatting till midnight. Woke up really early the next day to catch a flight back home from CHC International Airport. Not much time there to shop and all... but no worries for my Aukland trip would be coming up soon! then ill be more than prepared to shop for stuff and all! So till then fellas! short and sweet... need sleep... Gd night