Day 3 2/19 Christchurch, Chateau on the Park

We arrived Auckland,collected our luggage, went thru passport and biosecurity control. We had been warned we could not bring in any food, so I was worried about my Kind bars and protein powder. But no problems. We kept declaring our items to everyone, but they didn't seem to care. No one had a problem with what we brought. Not even the Snoopy dog (the working dog in the security area was a beagle). We lugged everything what seemed like a country mile from the international terminal to the domestic terminal. The walk felt nice after all the sitting on the plane. We tried to check in at the Jetstar terminal, but we were 20 minutes early for our check in time, so we were told to go wait. My handle came loose again on my carry-on bag, and I tried to find clear nail polish to lock the screw in tighter, but no luck. We had a 3-hour layover during which I got us a couple hundred NZ dollars from an ATM. We finally checked in to Jetstar for our flight, and of course the line was long now. Long security line, too. Glad we had 3 hours. We got sidetracked by a chocolate croissant on the way to our gate. It wasn't that good. Glad we just split one. Inside the terminal there is a bunch of birds flitting about.


We found our gate with an hour to spare. We checked our carry-on too. It is so much lighter to travel with virtually nothing.

Then we finally went to Christchurch and took an Uber to our hotel, Chateau on the Park. Check in is at 3pm and we will be an hour early. We'll see what happens.



We caught our Uber to Chateau on the Park, only to find that it really will not be ready until 5:00. They gave us coupons for a free drink and snack while we wait. We decided to try to go to a mall about a 15 minute walk away, and try to get something to fix the screws on my suitcase. We crossed the railroad track on our walk and Paul loved the sign.


We got some clear nail polish and some super glue. We ended up having late lunch/early dinner at the mall at a Japanese take-away restaurant.

After our long walk back to the hotel, our room still isn't ready. They gave us complementary drinks and a snack at the bar while we waited. We finally got a room at 5p. And our complementary cookie.



















A shower felt so good. I want to go exploring the hotel a bit and try to stay up till at least 8pm or hopefully 9 before crashing.

The hotel is beautiful.








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