Hey everyone. Well we have left NZ, we flew at midnight Thursday
night and family came to see us off which was lovely, Uncle Graeme,
Aunty Lynn and Jo & Kalley.
So this is us just before check in at Christchurch.
There
was a slight upset at check in. They refused to give us boarding
pass's until they could see proof of onward travel. So i raced over to
an internet machine and quickly booked a bus from somewhere in Malaysia
to Singapore, got the reference number and ran back to check in. By
then there was someone else serving and he just handed our pass's over
without asking anything!!!! Apparently the airline can get fined if
they don't check we have onward travel, and the manager who got called
over said Malaysia is clamping down and refusing entry.
Plane
flight was great, slept for almost whole 11 hours. Got to customs he
smiled and stamped our passports no problem! So no need for all the
stress at Christchurch, but guaranteed if we hadn't done it customs
would probably have asked for proof of onward travel!
We managed
to get to the hostel by getting local bus, then light rail...however, we
then got caught in the big protest on fair elections, so by the time we
got to the hostel we were hot and tired!
We have a roof garden at
the hostel, so i took a picture of a small part of the protest so you
can see a little bit of how busy it was....
So
we are having a siesta until the shouting and singing stop, and the sun
is not quite so hot before we have a wee walk round. Here is Andre at
breakfast on our roof restaurant.....
After
a relax we decided to explore. We wandered around, the protesting
students still around but no longer protesting. We went into a 4 story
department store and when we went to leave we couldn't find the exit.
Turns out the police tear gased the streets, so all stores shut the
doors (they all have garage type doors) to keep the gas out. There were
people banging trying to get in... finally got out after 20 mins but
still enough tear gas in the area for us both to have tears pouring down
our faces, and sore throats. Lovely local guy gave me some rock salt
to eat and spit and it seemed to clear away the residual tear gas
effects.
This is outside the shop before tear gas....
Andre in the locked in shop....
after we get out of shop
and in case you want to see a video....
