Nov 22 - Riders and Movies

Today began with a sleep-in for once, which was great, after all the 7 AM wake up times to catch the Magic bus. Began with some peanut butter toast and an apple as we sat down to watch the Riders game. But we struggled to get a good feed, as our usual source was about a half hour behind on its feed. So B opted to pay money to watch a legit TSN feed, which was terrible quality, but it would have to do. We came in at the start of the 2nd quarter and down in the score. Then the other feed (the illegal one) caught up to the game in real time and was better quality than the TSN feed. That was money well wasted. So we watched the rest of the game on the 2nd feed and cheered as the Riders took out the Stamps. This however meant we had to change our flight, which was booked on the 29th just after kickoff time.

Air New Zealand wanted us to pay $50 to change the flight, a $20 penalty, and the difference between the cost we paid and the cost of the flight now, all of which came out to well over $200. Outrageous. So we cancelled our flight outright with them (forfeiting what we had paid for our tickets) and booked a whole new flight with Jetstar for $150. Well $160 actually, because after we booked one ticket, the price jumped up $20, so we split the extra cost. The airlines here are so frustratingly behind the times and have the worst service I've ever encountered. Oh well, now we fly out 6 hours later on the 29th and we'll get to watch the game in Christchurch. After the game, we had nothing to do, so we went to the TV room and watched movies on the movie channel. First Jurassic Park (classic), then How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (chick flick). That brought us to dinner time, so we went to the grocery store and got a couple frozen pizzas then cooked them up in the oven at the hostel. With dinner, the movie was The Fast and the Furious, followed by Syriana. But Syriana was so slow, boring and political that I ducked out and chilled in the room and surfed the internet. But soon enough everyone else got bored and left too, so I switched the channel and Yes Man was just starting, so I watched that before retiring for the night. Tomorrow we head to Queenstown, which is the adventure capital of New Zealand and we'll be there for 3 nights and probably will catch up with a couple of our super six travel group, but Dan will be left behind as he is staying another night in Franz Joseph, then 3 in Wanaka, which is between here and Queenstown, so that's probably the last we'll see of him. Only a week left in New Zealand, so we'll have to make the most of the limited time left.