ARRIVED

I had hoped to post that we had a nice, uneventful flight to Christchurch and focused on settling into our little home.

However, that would not be in character with this journey.

We got to the airport in Auckland, only to learn that the Chilean ash cloud was back - and our airline had cancelled all flights to Christchurch for the morning.  They rebooked our noon flight for a 5 pm flight, but could not guarantee that it would actually leave that day.

ACK!

So, we gave up, took a miniscule refund and booked flights for later that afternoon on Air New Zealand.  We came in at about the same time that we would have arrived with the other carrier.  And, since Air New Zealand flew low to avoid the ash cloud - we got to see views like this.

We are now inside our cute little 2 bedroom house in Christchurch.  We have a garden, a reasonable kitchen, and a bathroom with no power outlets (?).  I can walk to several different restaurants, but unfortunately, the good grocery store and the wine shop are a little far to get to without a car.  I guess the rental car and driving on the opposite side of the road will have to be our next adventure.