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Trip Start Oct 17, 2009 Previous
Entry Trip End Nov 18, 2009

  Christchurch, South Island, New Zealand
Tuesday, November 17, 2009

We got into Hamner Springs about 2AM. Found our hostel somehow (once again without a map or any idea of where it was). But the good news was they had left a key for us on the gate at reception! We got to our room and found that no one was in this 3 dorm bedroom! That was about the best thing ever. It really sucks to get into a room late and tip toe around because you feel bad about waking someone up. Also, in the morning it sucks getting awoken early because other people are up. So we slept until 10am (which should have been check out time, but we didn't care). We ended up checking out about 11am. Then we went to the hot springs. I tried to tell Josh that they were just stinky pools with people soaking, but I don’t think he believed me. After about an hour, he was ready to go. We just wanted to go back to Christchurch to see some Maori show that night at 6:30pm. And I had a flight at 6:30AM on the 18th, so we really needed to hit the road.

We got to Christchurch about 5pm and found out our Maori show wasn’t operating just this day. Typical. So we found a different one, that wasn’t quite as good, but was definitely worth checking out. When we got back from the show it was about 8:30PM. We walked all over town to find a place to have dinner. Turns out the city shuts down by 9pm. Our mission for good food led us to having to eat KFC. I know. I don’t even eat that stuff at home. But I did get a salad if that makes a difference!

And that brings me to right now. Since I have to be at the airport at 4:30AM, we decided to not even get accommodations for the night. So we are sitting at a hostel, just happy to be out of the cold. I’m finishing this blog and will leave for the airport in an hour or so. After a nice shower here at the hostel (yah we have no room here. It’s a communal bathroom in the hallway; they’ll never know. Is it bad I’ve been reduced to showering like a bum in hostel bathrooms? And I dried my hair with the automatic hand dryer!).

Grand Finale:

Josh and I finally left the hostel about 3AM. We figured out how to get to the airport and instead of going inside to sleep, we figured we might as well sleep in the car til I had to check in. It was only about an hour and a half anyway. (I think we thought this was a good idea ONLY because we had the heater blasting on the way to the airport and it was real warm in there. We both forgot what it would be like shortly after turning off the car). Needless to say I woke up literally shaking. I woke up Josh and asked for the keys so I could turn on the car heater, which then he realized he had lost since turning off the car and sleeping. So after him searching for the keys for 10 minutes with the door open, I said, "Eff it, I’m going to check in." So I bid him 'adieu’, and made my fearless walk in the cold with all my shit. Dam, my backpack got heavier. (Might have been the bag of rocks I picked up in NZ-hey they were really pretty). I checked in, paid my $25 dollar departure tax (bull shit tax), boarded a 4-hour flight to Sydney and proceeded to wait 7 hours for my 13 hour LAX flight. Sounds tragic, but after my nice shower in the Sydney bathroom (in the airport,) I was ready to go! (Yes, I literally saw a bathroom with a shower in it and used it!).

**Thanks for reading and for all the awesome emails and comments along the way. You guys got me through those long, cold nights at hostels!**

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