New Zealand - Day 1

Yep, you read right, I'm currently blogging from New Zealand!
We have rented this totally cute ski chalet-style house and the best part is, it has broadband internet! So my laptop and I are totally buddies right now.

Anyway, I woke up at 4.30am this morning to the sound of my alarm ringing for the second time. I hate early mornings, and I never get up after the first alarm, so I always set my alarm 2 minutes earlier than it needs to be. Well, that usually works, but this morning I realised that I totally slept through the 4.28am alarm. Not sure how that happened.

Oh yes I am. It's because I'm not a morning person.


Anyway, we left the house by 5.40am and I was amazed by the number of cars on the road at that time. Don't these people realise that the hours from 5.00-7.00am are for sleeping?!
We got to the airport earlier than we needed to, but that was okay because it meant we had time to have a second breakfast. Necessary, because if I'm eating breakfast at 4.30am, you better believe I'm gonna be hungry again by 7.00.

By this time, I had totally (what is with me and that word today?!) taken my Valium and was feeling quite calm about all things plane-wise.

That feeling lasted most of the flight.

Until we started our descent into Christchurch and I felt the familiar rocking and rolling that is otherwise known as turbulence.

Then I started to feel nauseous.


I know, I know. You can tell me a million times that it's just air, and we won't crash or fall out of the sky etc etc. But this turbulence was the fall-a-few-metres-from-the-sky-and-feel-that-stomach-drop- "whoa" -feeling kind. Seriously, people clapped when we landed.

Me? I didn't clap, but I did stay in my seat for longer than usual while I got myself together and told myself that I'd need to stand up and move eventually.


Once we got through customs and immigration and all that fun stuff (and seriously, the NZ airport people used to be nice and friendly and now they're just not) we picked up our rental car and started on our road trip.

It's pretty much a straight drive all the way to Dunedin, but the one thing I was struck by was the green. The grass is almost lime green in colour. I guess it's because of all the rain. Seriously, we walked outside in Christchurch and it started raining. Hasn't really stopped either, even here in Dunedin.

Tonight, we met up with Neil's family who are all staying here too (it's his niece's wedding, that's why we're here in the first place) and then we had dinner at this amazing restaurant that was decorated Marrakech style. Pretty cool for some Australians dining in New Zealand in a Morrocan style restaurant.

Tomorrow, if the weather turns out nice, we're planning to go explore the property that this house is on (it's on 5 acres) and then meet up with more family. With Neil's brother in-law (the bride's father), brother, sister and their families here, plus my Mum's brother, brother-in-law and their families and my grandma and uncle living here, we have a lot of people to see!