Saturday 22nd Sept - D Day

Arrived safely in Christchurch and found the welcome to the country by the immigration and customs, much more welcoming than the one I received in Perth. Both Oz and NZ operate fairly strict bio-security to ensure that no unwanted organisms make their way into the country, such as plant seeds, or anything else which might be harmful to the environment. In Perth this involved them literally rooting through all my bags, and examining some wooden items in detail (which I had declared). In NZ, they just asked me what the wooden items were, checked that the Australians had checked them out, put my bags through an X-ray and wished me well on my time here.

Myra and Graham picked me up from the airport and we headed out for a drive to the Port Hills, which are near Christchurch which take you out to the harbour at Lyttleton. The scenery is pretty spectaculour, with a steep drive which takes you up through the hills, with a sheer drop on one side. What a view though. There's the crater of an extinct Volcano which is now filled with water. Sun was shining, but its a few degrees cooler here, feels more like Ireland.