Kiwi luvvin'

Y'all, I love New Zealand. 

I love that we are staying at a pod hotel in the middle of town that has 7 different "mood" tv stations (not to be confused with the "wake" stations - those you can set to come on with some gently increasing light to wake you up gradually), one of which is a crackling fire. I love that this place is so tourist oriented, but in this country that means lots of tour packages and help, rather than in-your-face commercialism. In fact, I love that the souvenirs you can buy everywhere are things like merino wool, handcrafted jewelry and artisan crafts; I have seen maybe one cheap tee-shirt shop.

The weather is divine, if unpredictable. It's fall, so it makes sense. Yesterday morning, we went to the weekend craft market at the Arts Center. This is how cute this city is: The University of Canterbury outgrew its amazing gothic campus right west of town center, so when they relocated, Christchurch kept the entire thing exactly as it is and turned it into a free center for visual and performing arts, and now there is an art house movie theatre, a theatre venue, artists in residence, stores, cafes, events...it's really cool, and the weekend market is wonderful. Plus, a whole alley of cheap street food. And I love street food.

And even though it was chilly and overcast in the morning, it cleared right up so that in the afternoon, we could be uber-touristy and take the gondola up the mountain. We took the bus to the suburbs and went up a little ski lift/gondola thing to the top of the 450m peak. The views up there were outstanding - Christchurch, the harbors and beaches of neighboring towns, these tiny little hamlets all along the coast. The wind was inSANE, so we have a lot of pictures of walking against the wind and me in the "I'm flying, Jack!" pose, but it was no joke - you literally had to brace yourself to not be knocked over by the gusts.

It got chilly again last night, and there was a brief cloudburst, but this morning it seems to have passed, and it's back to being mild and lovely. I love the New Zealand food - we've had all ranges, and all of it uniformly excellent. I love that the people here are so polite they don't even litter, so the town is very clean and liveable. I love that they also seem to love straws, so every time you buy a soda even at a conveninece store, they hand you a bendy straw; awesome!

This place is insanely awesome, y'all.