First Day in New Zealand

We arrived at Christchurch Airport on time this morning (thank goodness), then spent a bit of time having our walking boots and golf shoes checked for cleanliness (we are not allowed to import dirt!) and then collecting our hire car.  Our B&B is less than 10 minutes from the airport and is very comfortable;  the owners, Sue & Robin were very welcoming.  Having freshened up, we decided to drive into Christchurch to have a look see.  Sounds simple, but not quite as easy as that.  Many of the central roads are closed and a new one way system (newer than the sat nav) takes one round the areas that you cannot enter.  As there are still aftershocks, rebuilding has not started in earnest.  There are 'car parks' on the sites of demolished buildings and, in an effort to get people back into the town, the main shopping mall has been replaced by shops set up in ships containers (albeit now brightly painted and with one metal side replaced with glass).  You cannot get close to the cathedral (which is in the 'red' zone).  Sadly it is the older buildings that suffered as they had not been built to withstand tremors.  The photo on the left is taken from one end of where the main shopping mall was;  the cathedral square (the centre of the city) is some 300m to the left.  The buildings in the picture are unoccupied and, as you can see, some are being knocked down, others repaired.  The emptiness of the area is quite spooky and a stark reminder of the power of nature!  Back to the B&B afterwards as we are running out of steam after another overnight flight (without much sleep!) and the 5 hour time difference from Singapore.  It will be early dinner and early bed for us - with a quiet word before sleep to ask for the wind to be turned off tomorrow for our golf (presently it is very windy outside, but 25 degrees, and the course here has lots of lakes which will challenge our stock of balls.)  Hope all are well;  will be thinking of Lexi tomorrow and trusting that all will go well with her op.

Another Tour and the first rain!

Ingrid - Another relaxing morning by the pool - but managed 25 lengths to work off a few calories!! Seemed quite cloudy today so rather surprised at some "red bits" later on (sun lotion packed in the golf bags in storage! )Afternoon visit to Changi prision which was a little disappointing (although quite glad it wasn't harrowing as I had been led to believe) and learnt a bit about the local history.

 As you can see from the title - first rain of the trip where I got VERY wet in a very short time, however you dry out very quickly when it stops and within half an hour you can't tell that it's rained at all!!

Moving onto N.Z tomorrow so next post will be from there, as and when we get wi fi.
Hope everyone back home is well and a special GOOD LUCK to Kirsty for her interview on Wed.

Footsteps of Raffles

Having arrived yesterday evening, we had a wander about the area where our hotel is.  It was still very warm and humid late into the evening.  We tried to get as much sleep as we could before Pete had to be up to get ready and off to the office.  Ingrid had a very pleasant morning, swimming and relaxing by the pool.
It was 33 deg c at 7pm so not sure what it was late morning!!! Very nice.

 Ingrid's afternoon consisted of a tour of the quay area including high tea at Raffles - (wished she hadn't had lunch!) and then a river boat tour on the Singapore river.  Some of the buildings are quite amazing, especially the Sands Sky Park (below)

The day was finished off with a lovely meal out (a restaurant called Salt on the 55th floor of the Ion Building with amazing views) with one of Pete's work colleagues Adrian and his wife Suzanne.

Airports

Well here we go then.  We have made it as far as Heathrow Terminal 3 and checked in;  now sitting where we get free wi-fi so we can kick off the blog properly.  If we have forgotten to pack anything it is too late now.  The flight is due to leave at 2205 and arrive in Singapore at 1845 local time tomorrow.

We had a good day today, celebrating Pete's Mum's birthday a day early with all of the girls, Al, Oli and Lexi.  Everyone seemed to enjoy it - although we probably left a very tired pair of parents!  All a bit tearful as we left.

Preparing for Departure

Given our itinerary, we have been looking at what we need to take and how to not to exceed the luggage allowance!  We hope to use this blog to post some photos and let those who are interested follow our progress and keep in touch