HEADING FOR DUNEDIN

FRIDAY 29th APRIL

  The alarm went off at 8.00am but I couldn't find the "Off" button so instead I pressed the "Snooze" one.  It gave me 10 minutes peace and then went off again.  I continued pressing the "Snooze" button until 8.50am when I gave up and got up.  I packed my suitcase, made a cup of coffee and took out the remnants of my Pinot Grigio that had been chilling in my insulated cup overnight and put it in my bag.  Just before 10.00am I went down to reception to check out and leave my bags for later collection.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that I wasn't charged for my WiFi access, nor the newspapers I had, nor the bottle of fresh milk I was given to go with my tea and coffee.  (Only a small portion was used and the rest now resides in Scott's fridge).

  I walked off round the corner to partake of breakfast at Brown's Cafe, sitting outside in the morning sun.

As I sat eating my toasted sandwich and drinking my coffee I read my book and then set off for a walk in Burnside Park.  There I found a bench in the sunshine and sat reading, until I decided it was time for lunch.

I walked back across the park towards Brown's Cafe.  In one direction could be seen the hills outside the

city of Christchurch.  In the opposite direction could be seen the snow capped mountains.  I settled for an

iced chocolate and meat pie for lunch, again sitting outside with my book.  A bunch of middle aged locals sat at the table next to me.  One of the ladies produced pads of sketches, which she said had been done by her 91 year old mother over the years, many of buildings no longer standing.  She was going to publish them with the proceeds going to the Christchurch Re-building Fund.  Back at the motel they called a cab for me which took me to 126 Sealey Avenue, the temporary staging post for the InterCity coaches.  We were about half an hour late in leaving.

  I was the second person on the bus and made a grave mistake.  I took the window seat behind the driver.  First there was nowhere to stretch my feet forward, and secondly at the second stop in Christchurch I got a fellow traveller sitting next to me, so I couldn't move my feet sideways.  I was trapped!  Trapped for 6 hours with just a break outting in Timaru where we stopped for a 20 minute break. Driving out of Christchurch I saw several heaps of rubble as well as the remnants of a church.

  The last two hours of the journey were in night time darkness and we duly arrived half an hour late.  But Scott was there, and it wasn't far to his home.  We had several cups of tea and caught up with each other's lives.  Scott has a temporary lodger, Michael who I haven't met yet, so he has given me his bedroom and he slept on the couch.  His parents were over in December/January and he took them around New Zealand, so he has a good idea of where I should go on my travels.  We will discuss this further over the weekend, but apparently tomorrow we are going on a half hour flight over Dunedin!  I adjourned to bed about 1.30am.