Day 1. Christchurch.

 So, day one of our latest holiday. Technically as conference trip, but we'll be honest here. And we're already in Christchurch. Yesterday was our travelling day and it was too boring to warrant an actual blog entry. Our flight out wasn't until 2.20pm which was surprisingly civilised given the more common very early morning departures, and the airports were correspondingly quieter. There was a quick, uneventful flight to Melbourne, then about two and a half hours that felt a lot longer hanging around the airport before another flight to Christchurch. We arrived about 12.30 in the morning. Fortunately it's a small but well organised airport and we sailed through, collected our hire car (Subaru Outback) and drove through quiet, leafy suburbs to the Hotel Montreal. We were in our room by 1.30am.

So today... we woke up at 9am which is 6.30 at home, so probably as good a transition as we could hope for. It turns out to be a pleasant and small hotel. Our room is large but still manages to have not enough storage or flat bench space in the bathroom, and no power point near the mirror for Lynn's hair dryer. Still, it looks stylish.

After breakfast and a bit of unpacking we wandered the short distance into the city centre.

With a winding river and a mix of old buildings and new, post-earthquake architectural builds it was very pleasant, with lots of cafes and outdoor eating areas.

Fortunately, the day got a bit brighter as it went on. Being a tourist is quite tiring and after a couple of hours we walked back to the hotel, stopping at the Christchurch Art Gallery which had a mix of styles and lots of political works.

Christchurch Art Gallery

After a break to rest in the hotel we drove to the gondola, south of town, which climbs a short but steep hill.

You can open the windows a bit too much

It was cold and windy at the top, which limited the time we spent outside the building.

In the evening we aimed to go to a Japanese restaurant. This turned out to be pretty full, so we went to the adjacent restaurant which did coastal cuisine (yes, I know that's not a thing), mostly asian fusion and nice cocktails. We ate too much and didn't take any photos.