A weekend in Christchurch

I was in CHCH for about 3 hours a few weeks ago for work, but I was keen to do a little shopping and of course to see the All Blacks and hopefully discover something to take the place of my Oil (well- not quite replace, as they will never be replaced... but a place to channel my sports fan energies).

I ended up forgetting to bring flat shoes... This I realized as we were barely out of Blenheim. My feet paid the price and so I didn't end up feeling much like shopping. My 2 must do stores weren't in the central strip that I was shopping in- those being Esprit & Portmans. Anyway- that was good on the money front.

I was trying to rate Christchurch in my order of favourite-ness with Auckland and Welly... I think Auckland continues to be my favourite place to visit- if only because Devonport is such a lovely place. Plus I've spent enough time there to suss out the shopping spots, and I like all the volcanoes, and the sea. I can't stand the traffic... I visited Welly on a foul weekend so it was hard to come to a good conclusion about it, but I don't think I enjoyed it as much as Auckland. I need to visit in better weather to come to a more strong conclusion. Christchurch doesn't have the sea as close- meaning it drops in my order of favouriteness. None of them compete, in my view, with the top of the south.

Phil & I had a nice winter-y soup for lunch, and we ate at a wonderful Italian place for supper. Yum!! Then off to the game. It was no where as near as cold as expected. Definitely NOT like a fall Riders game, but I think we lucked out a bit on the weather. The seats are also more comfortable than the Riders benches, let it be said. The game was a rather boring one until about the 70 minute mark. Only penalties had been scored- no tries. Thankfully it got slightly more entertaining after that. The haka was great at the start, and seeing a game live, but with my weak knowledge of rugby I did miss the commentary. The All Blacks played the first bit very sloppy; they looked like they knew they would win- even though they didn't look that good. They finally turned it up enough to win. Some say it is good to win by just enough, but I'd rather see them play hard all game. We made our own fun cruising through town with All Blacks flags and noise makers. Celebrating- even though there wasn't that much to celebrate in terms of the game.

I liked all the number of old buildings in CHCH and all the trees and parks, as well as the trams.
It'll be fun to visit again.

On the work front, we're into our new office. How exciting. We were super crammed in our old little temporary office- plus its a short walk from my "free" parking spot.