Chch at Last

At about 6PM we reached Christchurch and checked into a backpackers hostel. The backpackers can sometimes be better than hotels. We have a double en-suite room with patio doors leading out to a secluded garden. Cooking facilities and the internet are available and it only costs about 16 pounds a night.

We decided to spend our first night in my favourite pub, the Duxdelux in the arts centre. This is a great pub which brews several excellent beers and I spent many an afternoon there with members of the Antarctic program in past years. We walked in, got a pint of my favourite ale (Nor'Wester) and sat in the beer garden. Tracy wondered if I expected to see any of my old mates there. I said no as I thought they had all left the program by now and anyway it was fairly early spring. Well just as I finished speaking, who walks in but Doc Betty Carlisle, the doctor from my winter! Well we had a good old gossip, and I found out that my old mate Snackbar was also in town.

This is a good omen!