Christchurch, NZ

"I'm losing track of myself
All over time zone lines
And if I daylight save do I jump
Ahead or fall behind?"

~Carbon Leaf, "International Airport" (I thought of this especially when trying to figure out how to call my mom from Sydney after being in Darwin, after daylight savings started, and again trying to get my watch right in Auckland since the plane's handy screen told me something different than the pilot did about local time. But I digress.)

Christchurch reminds me very much of Krakow. I'm staying just off Cathedral Square which, not surprisingly, has a big cathedral in it, just like the town square in Krakow. I exited the hostel, passed a random film screening in the square and headed towards the beautiful sunset, and promptly got lost. I was just exploring though, so it was okay. I managed to find an ATM, dinner (take-away sushi that seemed to have mayonnaise in it? ew) and tomorrow's breakfast and then really couldn't find the square again. So I just retraced my steps. After eating the sushi and watching the film (which turned out to be The Eleventh Hour, interestingly) and a brief dip back at the hostel to drop off breakfast, I reoriented myself and found out I was irritatingly close to both the square and the hostel when I had turned back! But that made it much easier for the second, shorter wandering, so that's good. Christchurch is also very similar to Australia, same brands of many things, same expressions, etc, so it's easy to see how there are very fluid borders between the two.

Hmm, Sydney. Sydney was good. I had a smashing good time staying with my friend Adina. Too many stories to share, but most of the errands got done. Except for the camera - still MIA. When Adina gets it, she will send it on to me... so no photos of NZ for the moment. Fingers crossed for making friends on the tour, which starts tomorrow! The kids on the first tour were so nice, taking photos and being my friends on Facebook so I can snatch them off there once I'm home and share them with you.

I did get up at 4:30 to get the sketcho shuttle to the airport and, instead of sleeping on the plane like a rational human being, I watched Juno :) - so now I'm VERY sleepy and am getting up early again tomorrow, so I say it's officially bedtime! Ooh, but first, trivia! I'm going to give Adina an honorary congrats, since it shows she knows something about American history (she answered it in person :P). The answer was indeed Lewis and Clark - Burke and Wills were infamous ill-fated explorers of Australia's interior.

Ok, new trivia: About how many miles is New Zealand from Australia?
a) 300
b) 800
c) 1400
d) 2000
e) New Zealand is in Australia