Trip to Aotearoa (New Zealand) !

Day 0, 1 - 12/9/2011, 13/9/2011

Today marks the beginning of my trip to Aotearoa, or more commonly known as New Zealand. Together with my brother, we will be there for 17 days in South Island.

My brother and I before entering the departure hall in Changi Airport.

The flight there was rather uneventful except for some of the usual turbulences. However, something interesting during the flight was that there is a woman sitting a few seats away from me who seemed to be very engrossed in her knitting. Knitting, eating, sleeping and repeating it, she managed to finish knitting a few purses.

Sunrise from 35,000 feet in the sky was awesome!

Awesome sun rays!

A boy from a few seats in front of me was also admiring the sunrise.

We flew over the Southern Alps of NZ. It was really cloudy on our descend into Christchurch, the mountains could hardly be seen.

A view of Christchurch from the sky as the plane was approaching the airport.

After almost nine and a half hours after leaving Changi Airport, we were in Christchurch Airport and proceeded with the customs. I got held back for a little while at the biosecurity checkpoint because my hiking shoes had soil in it and they had to have it cleaned before I can use them in New Zealand. Plus point was that I had my shoes cleaned for free, happy me. Heh.

So we waited for a while and went through a very quick administration work, we're out of the airport, heading towards the city!

Checked in at our accommodation for the first two nights in New Zealand, then went out to have a walk and explore the almost-ghost-town of the city centre of Christchurch. Although it's sad to see the places I've went to, only about a year and a half ago, all destroyed by the earthquake, it was quite an experience seeing the usually busy city centre becoming all quiet and calm.

Some of the memorial stuff with regards to the earthquake.

Many of the roads there were closed to prevent people from entering areas that were potentially dangerous.

Beyond the cordon there is the city centre where the damage has been the worst. The odd shaped building there is the Crowne Plaza Hotel.

Although many places seemed to be closed to public, most of them are quite centered within the city centre, so much of Christchurch are still accessible as per normal.

Badly damaged pavement.

My brother looking into the cordoned area where the damages were among the worst in Christchurch.

Walking on Kilmore Street, along the Red Zone cordon.

The place around the city centre feels like a scene of a zombie apocalypse, which at anytime, a zombie could appear from the cracks on the roads or from one of the many vacant buildings.

Someone doing some checks on the buildings in the earthquake-affected area.

A sad painting on a wall of a damaged building.

A local cyclist riding along Manchester Street with the rubble of St Luke's Anglican church at the back.

Many constructions and demolition are on going during this period to quickly rebuild Christchurch to the beautiful place like it was before.

Many of the smaller buildings were already in the demolishing process to make way for newer ones.

Why did the duck cross the road?

Saw a cute pirate plush toy hooked to the front of a car.

We soon got hungry after all the walking, and decided to look for a place to eat. But we have walked quite a distance away from the main shops and supermarket area so it was also another long walk to find somewhere to eat. So we thought that we will just eat at the first cafe/restaurant we come across.

And soon we landed ourselves in a small cafe along Bealey Street, not too far away from our accommodation and had a good lunch after all the walking.

After a slightly late lunch, we went back to our accommodation for a short nap to recover from the flight. Time seemed to pass quickly and about 4 hours passed from the time I closed my eyes.

It was almost dusk already and we had to look for dinner. We decided to visit the i-Site visitor centre first to have a look. It is currently in a temporary location which is at the Chateau at the Park due to the main building being in the Red Zone.

A row of cherry blossoms along Hagley Park.

Some spooky looking trees along the way.

The temporary i-Site is rather small, and was closed when we were there. So we just took a couple of brochures and went to look for dinner. We walked to Riccarton road which has quite a number of restaurants and cafes.

A train whizzed past us while we were on our way to dinner.

In Theo's Fish n Chips store!

Had fish and chips at Theo's for dinner! Love their fish and chips there! We were feeling tired after dinner so we went back to our accommodation and had an early night to rest up for the next day.