Colors of Christchurch

--Note that from this point on I'm going to post in NZ/Antarctica time which is now with their DST 17 hours ahead of MST.--

So far, I'm learning that the greatest necessity for this adventure is patience. We spent all of today sitting in orientation and safety training classes. One lunch break and a couple of "two-minute" potty breaks. Boy do I love bad political jokes... ha ha.






After we finally were set free from the shackles of safety training we took a shuttle back to my little "hotel" called Thomas'. Emily and I decided to go wander through the Botanic Gardens. It was around 5pm by this point so we didn't have too much daylight left. Regardless we had a wonderful time, the gardens, trees, and flowers were amazingly gorgeous. On one of the lawns there was a little duck family; mom, dad and ten little ducklings. They looked like little black and white cotton balls, each about the size of a lemon. The sweetest little things!





From the gardens we walked over to the cathedral for the last supper. We ate at a quaint little pizzeria called Elements and enjoyed great pizza and wine with the Cathedral bells chiming away in the background. After a couple of hours of ding-dong, ding-dong it got a bit old. Apparently Tuesday is practice night. A big rainstorm began during dinner which only added to the ambience. While we were there a Fire Chief from just north of Chicago stopped over to our table and chatted. Really nice guy who was in NZ teaching HazMat to the military. (The pics of the cathedral area are from yesterday while it was light outside.)

Off for the walk back to the hotel for the last night in NZ for several months. Nite nite!