24 Hours In
Two years of planning bore fruit yesterday (Friday) with the words "Welcome home" at the immigration desk at Auckland airport. A few hours later we were in Christchurch and we could finally say that we have arrived.
I am here for IT work with Mrs Royce graciously supporting me. With job interviews starting on Monday we have 48 hours to find our feet. It's now Saturday evening and I'd like to share our "24 Hours In" observations:
- The friendly chat from the immigration chap was a cute touch. Makes a great first impression. Well done NZ!
- After a couple of weeks experiencing the 32C heat and humidity of Hong Kong, the unseasonably cold weather in NZ hit hard. The air, however, is wonderfully clean. Kiwis should bottle the stuff and export it. Big thumbs up.
- Motel is excellent. The owners are present and pleasant with just the right amount of helpfulness.
- Breakfast time and the dairy on the corner charged us $20 for a bottle of milk, loaf of bread and a packet of Anzacs. Mrs Royce began to look worried.
- Went for a walk around the CBD (and I mean "around" as it is mostly cordoned off). The number of buildings with condemnation tags makes for depressing viewing.
- Lunch time and went to SubWay. The manager chatted with Mrs Royce and gave her 2 free cookies. Not sure what was going on there, but she was looking very happy after that.
- I'm afraid that Christchurch is the kind of place where a car is pretty necessary. Hired a car for $35 per day and drove down Moorhouse Avenue looking for a car to buy. Plenty of choice with the price spectrum roughly descending from West to East (Mercedes & Porche at the West end through to Backpackers Car Market at the East end). Although my name might suggest otherwise, I think we'll be spending our money half way along the road.
- Despite conscious attempts to observe the right-hand turn rule my UK reflexes prevailed to cause a minor stop-start-stop dance between me and another car turning right. My apologies to the lady turning right off Riccarton road this afternoon as I was turning left. I think I may get the hang of it by 2012. A slightly apprehensive expression from my passenger.
- Visited Pac 'n Save and found the prices to be more reasonable. Mrs Royce began to look less worried.
- At 19:30 this evening we were standing in the motel room doing the washing up and experienced our first earthquake. It felt as if a very heavy truck was driving past the building for about 3 seconds. Mrs Royce began to look worried again. Geonet reported it half an hour later as 4.0 on the Richter scale. Motel owners seem unfazed, so I guess it's possible to adjust to.
- Internet access has been excellent. She's very happy again
What an adventure. What a country. What great people. Looking forward to the days to come.
RR
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Probably of little comfort, but the spate of earthquakes in Christchurch isn't what it's like all the time. It's not generally known as an earthquake city (up to a year ago). I think they went for over a hundred years or so without a troublesome earthquake. Let's hope, the aftershocks die down soon so that everything can get back to normal.
