Wednesday - October 27
Headed to the airport at 6pm. Met Fred and Katie in the Air New Zealand lounge. Boarded the flight, settled in. Awesome business class. Had dinner shortly after takeoff, very tasty. Watched Inception, got about 7 hours sleep, then breakfast. Quick stopover in Auckland, then on to Christchurch.
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Friday - October 29
Checked in at The George at about 10am, they apologized, but rooms weren't ready quite yet. Left baggage, walked across the street to the botanical gardens.
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Very nice garden! Walked into cute downtown, had a delicious lunch at Sticky Fingers. Walked to main town plaza, climbed the 134 steps to the top of the church steeple. Walked back to the hotel, rooms were very nice, overlooking the park. Relaxed a bit, sat in the in-room hot tub. Then Rick went for a run around the park.
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Took a short drive south to the town of Lyttelton, but there wasn't much going on there. Drove back to the hotel, then walked back to the main town center for dinner at Sepia (since we couldn't make a decision). It was light and easy. Headed back to the room where we watched a bit of a movie (Fantastic Four), then went to sleep.
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Saturday - October 30
Woke up early and headed down to breakfast. When asked how she slept, Katie said "The Owl never sleeps", hence her first nickname. Left the hotel by 7:30am to make an 8:15 departure on the Tranz Alpine train to Greymouth. There were nice big windows and an open observation car at the center of the train.
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Randy had lots of fun taking pictures, hanging over the side to get the engines into view. We made a short stop at the top of the pass, then headed down towards the ocean.
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