After another quiet night at Glentunnel, and the opportunity to wash the outside and clean up the inside of the campervan, we headed out to Christchurch on a leisurely schedule. We had reservations at the Amross Motor Lodge about 15 minutes from the airport, and we didn't want to get in too early. We had a small breakfast (we were trying to run down all our groceries, but still had quite a bit leftover), then eventually headed to the hotel. I was hoping to find someplace to buy a souvenir sweatshirt, but all anyone had was hoodies, so I was capitulating to just getting a T-shirt. We had heard about a place called Re-Start, oddly described as a "high-end, shipping container shopping mall." After stopping at the hotel early and learning it would be about an hour before our room would be ready, we decided to take a drive over there, a decision we quickly regretted. Christchurch had experienced a series of very bad earthquakes back in 2010-11, and the entire downtown area was a construction zone. Dozens of roads were blocked off or redirected, large equipment was everywhere, and traffic was one big snarl. Shipping containers were stacked high everywhere, in once case it looked like it was only to protect the public from possible falling debris! We eventually made it to Re-Start, but the parking area was so small we couldn't even hardly get into it, and it was packed. One car had even just stopped in the middle of the aisle and left it! As we stood there wondering how we were going to get out, Hubby had to speak to the passenger, who evidently had to be told it wasn't a good idea to block the only path around a small loop of a parking lot, and he finally moved into the driver's seat and moved it. By this time we decided it wasn't worth the effort, and headed back toward the hotel. We took the time to fill up the campervan with fuel, grabbed a quick nosh there to get us through to an early dinner, and headed back to the hotel. It wasn't long after that we moved into a very nice room, with a full kitchenette and comfy space all around. Once we got all our stuff out of the van and into our room, we headed for the airport, where I exchanged some money, mostly into Australian dollars, but some back into U.S., in preparation for our departure tomorrow. I wasn't sure if the money exchange would be open as early as I needed it the following morning, though it turned out they would have been, as they open at 3:00 am. By this time, it was time to get the campervan back, and it was only a few minutes from the airport, so off we went! It didn't take long to get ourselves checked back in, but unfortunately, they didn't offer shuttle service anywhere except to the airport, so we had to call a taxi for the ride back to Amross. I did laundry next, while Hubby napped. Wash was fine, dryer took forever, and when I went to get more change, the proprietor suggested I hang it on the line out back! Wish I had know that BEFORE I wasted time and money on the dryer! So that's what I did, hung it up, then Hubby and I walked around the corner to a little Thai restaurant and enjoyed a nice meal before coming back, getting down the laundry, finishing packing and going to bed, VERY early, as we have to get up at 3:30 for our flight. I arranged for a taxi to pick us up at four, and jumped into the comfy bed by 7:30!
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