And so to New Zealand

 12/02/2013
  Our man in Brisbane who set up our travel arrangements for our journey home has made a monumental cock up which may cost us shed loads. We had mooched around Perth in searing heat, killing time until the airport shuttle picked us up (a bit late). No worries we thought we won’t have to stand in line, as we are travelling 1st class we can check in any time within reason. I had thought it a bit strange that our itinerary said First Class Confirmed as now it’s called Business Class.
 At the check in desk not only were we bumped down to cattle class, but learned that our tickets were “no frills,”  seat only, and we would have to pay for our luggage. We managed to get away with two bags in the hold and smuggled three as hand luggage. The two bags cost $230 at $115 per item regardless of what size and how heavy. We were very angry and are now wondering whether our future flights have been booked with the same error. It’s no wonder they were cheap!
 Matters got worse, when, in the departure lounge there was a choice of two beers only at stupid prices. At least the in-flight gins were duty free!

 13/02/2013
  We took off from Perth at 5- 50 pm  and landed in Auckland at 5 -30 am  after a six and a half hour sleepless flight. You do the maths! Just when we thought things couldn’t get any worse …….they did. We expected the luggage to be checked straight through to Christchurch only to find out we were switching terminals from International to Domestic at Auckland and had less than an hour between flights. We would have to get our own bags across terminals.
 By the time we had cleared immigration and collected our bags then caught the shuttle bus to the domestic they were calling our names to go to the departure gate immediately. We caught the plane by a couple of minutes having slung the bags on the baggage handlers conveyer. We arrived in Christchurch early, our bags did not. Fortunately there was a flight down from Auckland an hour later with our bags on it.
 Next up the phone numbers we were given to ring for a pick up to our New Zealand van wouldn’t work. More frustration until we managed to contact our van man.
  So, now we are sat , very tired in our very small cubbie, with even less room than we have been used to, drinking not very nice Kiwi pale ale watching the rain. It just has to get better!

 14/02/2013
  We slept for 12 hours and woke to a beautiful blue sky, not 41 degrees though, more like 21. Once again we are in a typical transit type camp, with people collecting and handing back campervans, but we have decided to stay one more night so that we could have a look at Christchurch.
 What a sorry state this city is in. It’s 2 years since the earthquake here and the devastation is still obvious. The centre of the city is cordoned off with access for construction vehicles and workers only. We found ourselves at an entry point and were turned around by a soldier. From behind the fence we could just see the remains of Christchurch Cathedral and outside the fence where the ground has been levelled , what used to be the main shopping area is now the same shops but all housed in shipping containers, even the banks. It is obvious this was a fine city with the small but picturesque river Avon running through the middle. Now it looks like a bomb site , very sad. People say that the locals won’t go anywhere near the city centre, yet just as much damage to domestic properties was done by the quake out in the suburbs where they live. Many houses, or what is left of them, are to be demolished and the whole area is to be returned to wetland which is what it was originally. Driving around Christchurch is just a nightmare as all the maps are  pre - quake and it is impossible to create maps for now as diversions and road work changes every few days, even the locals can’t cope. It will take years for the city to get back to normality, but will anyone want to live here? after all it is a notorious earthquake hot spot? After getting hopelessly lost several times we found our way out to the east coast and a town called New Brighton, not unlike New Brighton in the U K, run down and depressed. We are out of here tomorrow!

 15/02/2013
 Saw much more of the appalling results of the earthquake as we struggled to find our way through the maze of diversions and one way systems that is Christchurch, on our way south.
 We have moved a little way south but turned east out to the Banks Peninsula and the town of Akaroa. The Banks Peninsula is almost circular and was formed after three volcanoes erupted with the bay of Akaroa being one of the craters. The coastline is no indented by many bays which you can only get to by boat. To get here we decided on the scenic route over the mountains along a single track road following the coast, but eventually we ran out of road and had to turn back, another triumph of navigational skills! It didn’t matter really as the views were fantastic and this is not like Australia were everywhere is so  far apart. Normal travel time between Christchurch and Akaroa is 90 minutes, it took us all day!
We are on a nice van park set up on the hill overlooking the bay, the weather is set fair so we will stay two nights.