Christchurch: First impressions of New Zealand

We arrived in Christchurch late Tuesday night (bc of our proximity to the international dateline, I will specify that I am writing at around 5pm on Thursday). In contrast with the flight, our trip through customs and immigration was frustrating. They have very strict quarantine precautions to protect the secluded country from outside interference. Their immigration, too, seemed oddly tense. Maybe there is some underground mass movement to infiltrate NZ to steal their Kiwi birds and sheep (which, by the way, outnumber people here by 10 to 1). What bothered my most (I even found myself talking back to an immigration officer, a real traveler's no-no), was not necessarily the strict policies or precautions but the way that the officials treated us, implying that there was something wrong with us for not understanding their procedures (or need to pry into our lives).

Thankfully, our unpleasant encounters with Kiwis seem to have ended at the airport. So far, I've found them friendly and helpful. They are excited to talk about their country but are not arrogant about it. Actually much like Canadians, they seem realistic about its strengths and weaknesses and proud even of its existence. In comparison with what I found to be a slight arrogance in the Aussies, the demeanour of the Kiwis is a welcome change.

Christchurch is really lovely. It is a small city - a population of only 400,000 - and clearly heavily influenced by its British heritage. It is clean and relatively well laid out. It has lots of open public spaces and gardens, including the huge botanical gardens. However, quite simply: it's boring. We covered the downtown core in a morning and have since been searching for things to do.

Tonight we meet with our tour director and co-tourers. We are so hoping that they are not all retirees or at least that our tour director is youngish. But if not, we will as always make the best of it. The tour leaves Christchurch tomorrow morning, heading for Fox Glacier. The next 17 days will be exciting!