The Trip

Between the gate and our seats on the Air NZ plane, we had one good surprise and one bad (or least annoying) surprise.  Erik was sending guitar for Rowan for which we expected to be levied a sum of money as extra baggage.  The counter agent asked what was in the box.

-A guitar.

-Is it wrapped in Styrofoam?

-No, it's in a hard case. 
-Sign here.
And that was it!  

TSA was a different matter.  First I went through the full body scan.  The new SOP for TSA is "you can't see London, you can't see France until we see our underpants".   


Then when they scanned my carry on, the discovered I had a weapon of mass destruction with me- a Micro-Leatherman that has a little ruler, scissor, nail file, tweezers and a 1 1/2 inch pen KNIFE.  I had to leave security and mail it to myself.  United did  not consider it as dangerous as Air New Zealand.


Twelve and a half hours later we touched down in Auckland and changed planes to go on to Christchurch.  We had to go through security again, but before we did, Lolly cried, "I left my Kindle on the plane!"  She had to sprint back to the airplane and muscle through the cleaning crew to recover it.


Customs, although slowish, was a breeze.  All our worry about prescription drugs, and manure on our shoes was for naught.  I never had  to use my argument about why I was entitled to three bottles of bourbon, either.  

Lyttelton

We had to wait a little for Bob to show up.  It turns out they had to do some time juggling.  Alison got a short consulting gig in the north and had to go to the airport to fly out.  That meant dropping the kids at school before they could come to the airport.  So we got picked up and Alison said Hi and Bye and left.  We were now in Christchurch.  


We motored through town and down through Lyttelton, where we stopped for a somosa and a coffee.  Then it was on to Sumner and the house.

In the coffee shop

The first thing we noticed about the area is that it is bloody cold.  I wish I had brought all my sweaters.  It was overcast, very windy and about 50F.  While you see people on the streets in short sleeves and shorts, you need to remember that this is a country that still has not discovered central heating.  They have a mindset that NZ is a South Sea Island and, therefore must be tropical.  Happily, I did hear a local woman comment saying, "I can't imagine what -5C is like".  

We made to Sumner in time to greet the grandkids at their school.  They were nearly unhinged all day with the excitement of grandparents showing up.  It was a grand reunion.  We hung about all afternoon and evening catching up on everybody's stories.


Walked into town this morning and along the beach a bit.  Still miserably cold.