Lena boards first

Day 16 Christchurch

Woke up and went to the free continental breakfast for Hilton rewards members. It consists of cereal and toast. Normally it is $25. If you want the hot food which is French toast and eggs and tater tots you have to pay an extra $8. I ate berry muesli with toast and orange juice. Becca ate fruit and toast with vegemite. I also had a bite with vegemite. It tastes like spreadable soy sauce. Which you’d think would taste amazing. It does not. We looked up what a vegemite sandwich is. It has cheese and sometimes tomatoes and avocados. We think it’d be better in this form than just on toast.

Also becca was able to spot the Mormon in the hotel. She’s winning 2-0. The guy had a bonneville flats tshirt on. So that was a clue.

We then showered for what felt like 5 hours. I watched the Simpsons while becca was in the bathroom. I’ve watched more Simpsons in the pasts day than I have in the states in the last decade. I used to watch a lot growing up. Also showering is so wonderful. I like the smell of the bathroom shower products the hotel gives us. I can’t tell if I like the smell because it smells good or just doesn’t smell like campervan BO. Maybe both.

We walked to a nearby mall. I tried to return my Kathmandu sweater for a bigger size. But we ended up at an outlet instead. They did not have my sweater. But becca did buy more clothes. So over all it was a productive trip.

We then realized we were hungry so we went next door to Alligator pizza with large slices. I got salami pepperoni and becca got veggie. We decided the generic cheese on pizza here isn’t very good. Not as bad as Rio though. We may forgo future pizza here. But the crust was good. Oh! Also Hell pizza is a chain and exists here too. Glad to know Hell exists everywhere, not just Wellington. The sign to the store literally just says “Hell”. I like that.

We then walked by a gelato place. What. How have we not been eating more gelato?? We shared a double scoop of Hokey Pokey and Gold Rush. Both have NZ candy in them. We still don’t know what they are. But the base flavors were yummy. This gelato place had one flavor for every color of the rainbow. It was pretty. They also had a chocolate fountain. Which we of course added to our gelato. The most expensive item on the menu has 9 scoops of ice cream. We did not get that item.

Then we headed to the local cinema. We watched frozen 2. Don’t judge. We really wanted to watch it. I got a movie themed snack and bought two cups of ice. I have no regrets. Also… um… that movie was better than the first. The storyline and the songs. Change my mind. When we left the theater it was about 6:30. We were walking out of the mall and everything was shut down. Guess they shut things down super early here. I am worried about what young hoodlums do if they don’t have malls. Maybe drugs. Or rugby.

We got stuck on the second floor and could get down to leave the mall. The elevators were out of commission. We had to take these moving escalator ramps to the lower floor. We weren’t supposed to because there was a barricade but the NZ mall cop who was a teenager let us use it anyways.

Then we took an Uber (a Prius) to a park where there was a global Christmas festival with food and free performances. It sounded big online. I think the only people there were the families of the performers. It was wonderful. It felt like those global diversity assemblies in high school. The MCs were terrible. Maybe this was the first year they were running this event. Our favorite was the Peruvian drummer whose Japanese wife danced with different percussion instruments to each song. She was so good! We also ate a smothered samosa and caramel donut.

After the Filipino fashion parade we took an Uber (first not Prius) back to the hotel room where I recounted my day for you enjoyment.

Cheers!

Lena