Christchurch

Day 155 (November 30, 2018) – Christchurch, New Zealand

Nothing exciting happened in Christchurch, but I wanted to write down how we got here so we’d remember.

Way back in September we were in a small hotel all to ourselves in Iza, Colombia and we were trying to figure out how to connect our South America trip with our Asia plans. We spent a lot of time looking up various flights and ended up redeeming frequent flier miles on a flight that departed Santiago, Chile and arrived in Christchurch, New Zealand with a connection through Sydney. The original plan was to just go to Australia, but since we were using miles it didn’t make a difference in cost if we were going to Australia or New Zealand, so we decided to utilize the “free” connection to New Zealand and spend some time there. Since this was around the holidays there weren’t that many award flights available so we got the last award flight of the year on November 28^th, exactly five months after we had arrived in Guatemala at the start of our trip.

We had nearly 12 weeks to make our way from Colombia down to Santiago. We had big plans to work our way through Ecuador and Peru and then onto either Brazil or Argentina or both before ending up in Chile to catch our flight. We ended up spending too much time in Colombia, too much time in Ecuador, and then too much time in Peru and before we knew it, we had to be in Chile to catch our flight. We ended up purchasing a flight to get us from Lima down to Santiago in time. That flight was the start of our very long trip across the Pacific.

Despite the horrendous traffic at the Lima Airport we still managed to arrive over two and a half hours early for our flight on Sky Airlines to Santiago. We’ve flown on Sky on our last trip in Chile and never had any concerns, but since then they’ve changed their business model to become one of the budget airlines. We got in line to check our bags and we waited and waited and waited and moved all of about two feet forward. There weren’t that many people in line, but it just didn’t move. It turned out that they only had a couple people at the check in counter and one of them was checking in this huge, disorganized tour group and the other was checking in the slow but constant trickle of people who had paid for priority check-in. We waited two hours in line before we were able to check our bags and then kindly reminded that we were to be at the gate in 15 minutes for boarding. This was an international flight! We hadn’t even made it through security or immigration yet. And there were still hundreds of people in line behind us, all waiting to check in. Fortunately, security was fast and there was hardly anyone at immigration, so we flew through and made it to the gate in time. Still, when you arrive at the airport three hours ahead you don’t expect to spend two of those hours standing in line just to check your bags in. I think we’ll pay for a different airline next time.

Chinese food in Chile? Why not. 

We arrived in Santiago, waited in line and got our passports stamped, collected our bags, and took a shared van to our hotel. It was one of those big airport hotels only a five-minute drive away. It was very expensive by our standards but easier than finding a cheaper one in the city. After traveling so long this simple western style hotel room with plentiful hot water felt like a real piece of luxury. We grabbed dinner at a Chinese restaurant of all places, but there was very little within walking distance of us. The next morning, we were up again, back at the airport, and getting our passports stamped out of Chile.

Waiting in the Santiago airport to depart.

 

Travis' first indication that he would be back in Australia again after 15 years.

Our Qantas flight from Santiago to Sydney was already delayed when we arrived at the airport. There were storms in Sydney and it was causing havoc at the airport so our incoming flight was delayed. This same storm would come back to bite us again a few days later in New Zealand. It was ok though because we had nothing else to do and the airport is as good a place as any to hang out in for a while. At least the person checking us in was honest when we asked if we were likely to make our connection in Sydney. She said it wasn’t going to happen but that it would be sorted out in Sydney. The Qantas flight wasn’t too bad. It was around 14 hours or so and the seats and service was a big step up from our last flight. As soon as we departed the plane in Sydney we were told that there were no more onward flight for us that day and that Qantas had put us up in a hotel room for the night and booked us on the first flight the next day with Emirates. I was very impressed with how well organized Qantas was with the whole situation.

This was the nicest hotel room of our entire trip. Maybe worth the extra overnight stay. Too bad we were only there for about 6 hours. 

With our unexpected overnight in Sydney we had to wait in line through immigration again, collect our bags, and got a very thorough look over at customs since we were carrying outdoor equipment and food with us. We finally made it out of the airport and checked into our hotel, which was literally across the street and within walking distance. Now this was luxury. We hadn’t had a hotel this nice for as long as we could remember. It might have been worth the unexpected overnight stay. Of course, we had to send some emails to New Zealand adjusting for our day-late arrival.

Back at the Sydney airport again at dawn.

After about 5 hours of sleep we were up again and back in our familiar airport lines. After checking out of our third country in two days we boarded an Emirates flight on one of the giant double decker A380s. It’s hard to believe they can fly, but it took us from Sydney to Christchurch. Emirates was amazing. When we have jobs again, I’d gladly pay a little extra to fly with them. I had inches between my knees and the seat in front of me. I could even cross my legs comfortably if I wanted too. I actually felt like a normal sized person in a normal sized seat. It was wonderful. Sadly, with most other airlines my knees are always in contact with the seat in front of me and that's no way to travel for hours at a time. 

Our first view of New Zealand, three days after we left Lima.

After getting to Christchurch we went through immigration and customs yet again. This routine was getting really exhausting. New Zealand was even more thorough at inspecting our belongings than Australia and they unrolled and inspected our tent for dirt and seeds. We finally exited the airport and arrived. It felt like this whole trip had taken forever.

We were supposed to have two days in Christrchurch to prepare for our 5-day hike, but we now only had one. We picked up our rental car, picked up our rented backpacks, went food and supplies shopping, and then crashed at our accommodation. The next morning, we got our packs organized and hit the road for our New Zealand adventure. We did lots of driving around Christchurch but never even saw the downtown. We mostly saw grocery stores and the equivalent to Walmart.

The strangest thing about Christchurch to us was that people spoke English. After being in South America so long it seemed unnatural to be able to go up to someone and ask in English for what we needed. Even still, when they responded it took us weeks to make our brains stop frantically working to try and formulate a response in Spanish. I didn’t even notice their accent. It was the first fluid English we’d heard in so long it just sounded like plain old English to me.