With a run skip around we go yes

So, I'm in New Zealand!  But before that:

We spent two in a have days in training/orientation.  This mainly consisted of OSHA laws and learning about the company and what to do/not do.  It was a little slow most of the time and while I managed to stay wake through everything, I don't quite remember it of all (you can either have me awake or remembering).  Lunch was usually provided by the company (the same thing every day) and then evenings were spent dining at the hotel.  I really liked the Staybridge Suites in Park Meadows.  They provide dinner Tuesday though Thursday with free beer and wine!  Altogether not that bad.

After the last few hours of training on Thursday we went outside to load into the busses.  They had one large charter bus to shuttle everyone to the airport.  Unfortunately, when they figured in shuttling 50 passengers they had forgotten to account for fifty people's worth of luggage for a six month stay in Antarctica.  The luggage compartment was full (it was amusing watching people walk around to the other side, expecting the compartment there to be magically empty, and as they started to cram things in there it would push things out on the other end.  Eventually everyone realized they would need to send the bus back for more, so the people with luggage already on the bus left, and we waited.  The company was nice enough to go for pizza, though their "Back in 20 minutes with pizza!" turned into "Back in an hour with pizza!"  Then it turned out to be Pizza Hut, and not even thin crust.  I guess there wasn't a Blackjack in range.  Still, you can't beat free lunch.  Once the shuttle came back (much, MUCH later) we piled in and rode over to Denver International Airport.  I got through security screening surprisingly quickly, considering what I had packed.  Even though we arrived there over an hour after the first group we were still several hours early for our flight.  Probably a good thing were scheduled to head to the airport at noon for a 5pm flight, huh?

The trip to Los Angeles on American Airlines was uneventful.  Free drinks and pay-for snacks, and the pilot didn't even notify us when we flew over the Grand Canyon.  We landed in LA, caught a small airport shuttle over to the international terminal and after a wait we loaded into the Quantas plane.  It has been a while since I've been on a plane of that size for that length of a trip, and I must say the plane was very nice.  The seats were okay, I would have liked more legroom or the ability to recline, but upgrading to business class apparently would have cost $4,000.  SO I resigned to my seat, watching Ironman and the latest Indiana Jones movies on the on-demand setup built into the seats.  Everyone had their own personal TV screen with a remove in the armrest.  We could queue up movies, television shows, CD playlists or even simple video games (I gave up on mini golf rather quickly).  After we had been sitting on the in the terminal for a while, it occurred to me we were still in LA.  Then the plane took off.  Every so often I would check the channel that showed the flight's progress across the ocean, but most of the time I watched a movie or slept.

Then we arrived in New Zealand!  At first look it isn't too different.  Maybe all airports look alike.  The first thing I did was say 'Hello' to every employee I past, listening to all their accents.  It was a full day before anyone actually said G'day to me!  I exchanged currency and got my New Zealand dollars, little bills with windows in them that felt distinctively different from the US tender.  More waiting.  I hung out with someone else flying with me, and watched a lost little girl run back and forth along the terminal on her own.  I reported that to a couple of men in uniform who said there were with the fire department or something like that at the airport.  Walking from the International Terminal to the Domestic terminal at Auckland airport I noticed how chilly it was.  Later on when I was back outside, it seemed to be getting colder even though the sun was coming up.  I watched some television at the gate, it was confusing whenever they would use a term I didn't understand, but it was interesting otherwise.

We loaded onto the third flight of the day.  About as large an aircraft as the AA Denver-LA fight, but with another row of seats.  Luckily the two rows behind me were empty and me and one of the grantees jumped back to claim window seats.  I got a lot of photos of the land.  I never realized that New Zealand had so many mountains.  I'll also say this: Quantas is the BEST airline I have ever been on.  The seats all still have radios built into them (something it seems like flights in the United States phased out about a decade ago).  The flight crew was very courteous, and the free portion of the meal for the flight (which was SHORTER than the Denver-LA flight) consisted of coffee, tea, juice, or water and a croissant filled with cheese, ham, and tomato, and an apple.  You could pay for soda, which I did no need.  I have started enjoying having tea everywhere.  

We landed in Christchurch.  Again, an airport is an airport.  We loaded our luggage into our respective hotel shuttles and took off (metaphorically, we're done with planes again until tomorrow).  I wished I was sitting in the front passenger seat in the shuttle van, if just to experience life in the from of a car from the left side without driving.  The road system seems a little more fast-paced over here.  Or maybe its just a busy part of town.  The houses along the roads have are not too different from houses in the States, but they do still have unique touches I can't quite place.  My hotel is the Windsor Bed & Breakfast in Christchurch near the main square in town.  It is a very nice little hotel with a very friendly hostess.  When I call it a little hotel, I mean how it appears from the outside.  It had never occurred to me that the building was so huge!  Very nice little place, even if I don't have a private bathroom.  They have a dining room for breakfast every morning and a lounge where I am sitting now.  They also have a somewhat long dachshund who watched me eat the spuds and mushrooms bought from the square when I got back later that day.  I walked through town the other day.  I had a conversation with a very friendly man who just started talking to me while I was waiting for a light.  I managed to pick up a copy of Spore with has so far worked without flaw on my computer (luck, since I won't be back in the States for six months).  It is interesting how many Asians I saw on the streets.  There are also quite a few Asian businesses and Japanese restaurants are definitely more common than in the States, as there was almost one on every block.  I plan to go back to the OK Gift Shop later on and buy a little wooden Kiwi bird.  I assume it to be a Japanese store.  They sell gifts and noticeable stock of Japanese items, and there was a group of Japanese girls playing with gloves and giggling.  The store also carries wool socks made from possum, it seems.  They have a slogan proclaiming something along the lines of 'Buy socks, save a kiwi'.  Apparently possums are an invasive species that eats kiwis (I assume the bird). 

The whole city center of Christchurch has a feel that kind of think Japan would be like.  It is a lot of little stores, many times there will be TWO of the same store within just a few blocks of each other.  Some of them are just little counters in the wall of the city block.  I feel back for having given myself a haircut before I left the states, as I passed the shop for Bob the Barber.  Glancing in as I passed, he appeared to be a young man around my age with a young pregnant woman with him who I assumed to be his girlfriend or wife.  Maybe I'll go in and ask them to shorten me up more or trim my sideburns up a bit.

At some point I'll visit the Aquarium and Kiwi House, a small building with a gift shop in front.