Christchurch

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We arrived in Christchurch about 11:30 PM, Thursday, January 5, 2006 after our extended stay in Sidney over New Years. We took a taxi van to the Latimer Hotel on Latimer Square. The plan was to rent a van in Christchurch and use it to drive around the south island, take it across to the north island on the ferry and drop it off in Auckland where Jan and I catch our Air New Zealand to Los Angeles (the kids leave a day earlier to fly to Sidney and catch their Air Canada flight home).

I had reserved a van with National Car rental, who allowed the drop-off in Auckland for $160 extra. Since National Car wasn’t located at the Christchurch airport and I didn’t want to find my way to the Latimer Hotel in the dark I had arranged to pick up the van the next day.

In the morning, January 6, 2006 Jan and I took a cab to the address on our rental confirmation, while the kids slept in. As we got out of the cab we noticed that the rental company name was different and turned to stop the cab but he had already driven away. We went inside and the agent told us that National Car Rental had closed their New Zealand business a couple of months ago. “They used to be here but since they closed we’ve taken this space… I think Europcar took over their business. They’re located a couple of miles down the road.”

I stood there stunned, running through the options in my mind. (There may have been some profanity in my thoughts)

Then, the agent said, “I’ll call them and see if they’ll come and pick you up.

I managed to say, “Thank you. Yes, thank you, that you be great.”

The manager of the Europcar office picked us up and we quickly got our Silver Toyota Previa eight passenger van and we were on our way back to the Latimer Hotel. The new arrangement called for us to drop the van off in Picton at the Europcar office at the ferry terminal and pick up a second van at the ferry terminal in Wellington. When we arrived back at the hotel the kids were still sleeping (now noon) so Jan and I walked the three blocks to Cathedral Square to finalize our travel arrangements with the iSite office (tourist services) located there.

Greg, our tourist agent at iSite, was a great help in planning our itinerary, booking excursions and hotels. In about an hour we were organized for our New Zealand trip. We spent the rest of the day touring Christchurch.

Christchurch (population 331,000) is located about midway up the east coast of New Zealand and very British and Anglican and reminded us lot of Victoria. It is comparatively dry (.75m of rain per year versus 5m on the west coast) and flat. Christchurch, like Victoria, B.C., is known as the garden city and there are parks, squares and gardens everywhere. The Christchurch Botanical Gardens are beautiful with the Avon river running through it. (see pics)