Nov 28 - Christchurch and Walking

The bus stopped at a few places today, but I was in and out of napping, so I missed a lot of the commentary. Had a BLT for breakfast and the rest of the trip was pretty uneventful. Got into Christchurch around 1 (so a short day on the bus, compared to some of the recent trips between cities) and checked in to the YHA. It's a decent looking hostel, with 4-bed dorms and the beds are staggered so they only overlap a bit (rather than the normal bunk beds that squeak a lot) and allow for more room for everyone. Unloaded the bags then printed our boarding passes for tomorrow and booked the $7 airport shuttle for our flight tomorrow. Then we went walking around town with Bhamini. saw the central cathedral (but couldn't go in due to a jazz concert), an old-looking private school modeled in the Oxford style, booths and live music in the square by the river, and through some shops in the area. Then we proceeded to do a huge loop of a park that could probably fit 50 football fields inside it. The walking built up an appetite and we hit up Subway and got loyalty cards (which we had never seen before but could have gotten dozens of free subs with by now!) and enjoyed some meatball foot-longs. Bhamini wasn't feeling the sandwiches, so we continued on after eating and stopped at a fancy little restaurant where she had a lamb meal while B and I kept her company and enjoyed free waters. Then back to the hostel and tossed in a load of laundry (it's been awhile, so this was much needed). The rest of the evening consisted of movie watching; Zombieland, followed by Mystic River. Tomorrow we get to enjoy the Grey Cup online here and then head over to the airport to fly to Auckland. Since we arrive late and our flight from Auckland to Melbourne is at 8 AM the next day, we're considering saving the money on a hostel and the $20 shuttle (each way) and just camping out in the airport. Besides, what's a year on the road without one overnight stay in an airport?