February 13
Paraparaumu to Christchurch
We left early, abandoned Valerie's car at the garage and were given a lift to the station. My snapper wouldn't work there so Valerie rang the office from the train. We had just got through when the train entered the first of the six tunnels, which tended the kill the signal. Once we had cleared them, I rang from my phone. Eventually, a helpful man explained that my card was too old to work on the new train card readers and that I would have to get a new one. He emailed me a code number which I would have to use when I got the new card to transfer the $50 I had loaded onto the old card onto the new one.
In practice, this wasn't possible as the sandwich shop selling the cards at the airport did just that - sold cards. The poor chap behind the counter hadn't been trained in anything more & was, not surprisingly, a tad disgruntled. He would stop selling the cards but the airport authorities had browbeaten him into continuing. He rang a lady who then spoke to me. There was no simple solution so I decided to wait until I had reached Christchurch to try to find a solution. What a shambles.
Once the train had delivered us into Wellington Station, I walked to the bus stop with Valerie, where she boarded one to the hospital. I crossed the road with my suitcase to the ANZ Bank. Being a nasty commercial outfit, they understood customer service well and I came away with a new EFTPOS (ATM) card in a very few minutes.
I returned to the bus stop, caught the Airport bus and was delivered there in less than 30 minutes. I acquired a boarding pass and then discovered that the baggage system had just ceased working.
Eventually, they processed the bags manually and I was soon upstairs engaging with the man in the sandwich bar.
I ate one of his sandwiches, boarded the plane and awaited my arrival in Christchurch. We landed safely, I summoned the car rental company to collect me and I was soon in their offices collecting a very smart, almost new, car. This I drove to Beckenham and John and Anne's house, not getting too badly lost en route.
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John and I walked immediately round the corner to the Moon Under Water and had pleasant, but not brilliant, glasses of IPA. We relaxed at home for a while before setting off in the car in the middle of rush hour. John was going to a choir of some sort and I was meeting Steve & Sara from London. Right: Lots of roses in poor light |
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I got out of the car by the Avon River, followed the banks and realised that I was by the side of the Earthquake Memorial, a rather solid wall of white marble. It was under stated but quite fitting. A long slab of stone running alongside the river which runs through the city centre.
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On the opposite side of the road is Oxford Terrace, completely rebuilt after the earthquake but still functioning in the same way - wall-to-wall restaurants and bars. I killed a little time and then found the first floor beer emporium where we had arranged to meet.
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Steve & Sara arrived and we spent a convivial evening drinking craft beer and eating good "sharing platters."
We parted company and John & Anne arrived in the car to take me home.