The Tale of the Tailess Cows

28 August: Our first full day in Christchurch was filled with a lot of walking. Perhaps an excessive amount. We returned to Vodafone first thing in the morning to get our phones properly working on the network. After that was successful, we went to K-Mart where Kara bought a hairdryer for $24. Yeah, that's expensive! For lunch, after deciding against the food court, we went to a frozen yoghurt bar outside the mall called SoYo. It was decent, though the range of both flavors and toppings was less than impressive. We got a donut-flavored yoghurt mixed with an intense chocolate.

From there, we went to the university where we finally got our Canterbury Cards and our on-campus internet working...mostly. We now have email addresses (two!) for the school as well as access to various places on campus. Kara got all her scholarship stuff worked out, though the scholarship lady must be one of the most awkward people we've ever met. The smile never left her face even as she proclaimed her utter lack of knowledge regarding anything.

On the way home, we decided to get Pizza Hut. Yeah, judge us. We wanted something cheap and tasty. Pepperoni Lovers was the only option with pepperonis (extra toppings cost $3, which is the same price as the special pizzas. Dumb.). We'll probably stick with extra large cheese pizzas from now on, though, since everything else is quite expensive and large pizzas are somewhere between small- and medium-sized US pizzas. We're hoping extra larges are decent upgrades. The pizza was excellent but they didn't provide napkins and parmesan topping was considered a topping (peppers not an option). We got home and our host made some additional food from leftovers, which wasn't at all tasty (chicken bits in a vegetable stew) but supplemented the small-sized pizza dinner.

29 August: Friday involved us finally being able to have bank accounts, two shared checking and savings accounts. That means we can finally actually get monies! Before we took care of that, Kara went to Subway to pick up a sandwich. We then ventured to Pak 'N Save, the bulk grocery chain that has the lowest prices in town. We picked up quite a bit of food to last us a few days including some pre-packaged pasta, some Mexican food ingredients (they have everything we need to make our own refried beans. Mmmm.), and some other bits. Overall it was quite a bit of food for a decent price, though we certainly don't have much variety in our diet right now. It's too expensive to diversify and we don't really need to make meals currently since our host covers that more or less. I went to KFC for my (late) lunch and was happy to find that the chicken tastes just the same as in the US. The mashed potatoes are a bit more flavorless but the more disappointing thing is that it always comes with gravy, which I don't really enjoy, and that there is at least as much gravy as potatoes served in rather small portion containers.

From there we went to the university where Kara failed to meet her advisor. His office was open but nobody was at home! We did pass a bloke on the way out who we decided not to follow to see where he went. We got Metro passes and a few other items from the Student Association then ventured back home after picking up milk from the New World. Overall, Thursday was a pretty straightforward day, though not as successful as we had hoped.

Niko at the Canterbury Quarantine Center.

30 August: We visited Niko today, which was a happy reunion to be sure. The journey to the kennel took 25 minutes, though we did get to see some of the Canterbury Plain on the trip to the facility. The place was just a bunch of heavily-modified trailers and containers but it was oddly nice. Niko has a two-bunk flat with an access door to the outside, though a single wall of chain-linked fence blocks him from escaping into the wild. He has a piece of tree and an actual scratching post to hone his claws upon while he is treated to a "senior" diet of both kibble and wet cat food (more than he gets from us!). Lots of blankets covered his bunks with the sheets from the top bunk cascading down to the lower bunk. Overall, he is well taken care of. He was quite happy to see us, walking back and forth across our laps, rubbing his head on our feet, and generally purring and enjoying the attention. It was painful to leave him again, but it was necessary. And we probably won't see him again until he is moved to The Catery, a different non-quarantine kennel.

The summer town of Sumner as viewed from atop Port Hills.
Santa Cruz is 6,925mi (11,145km) northeast of here across the Pacific Ocean.

After visiting our kitty, our homestay host took us on an auto tour of Christchurch. We went north of the city where we saw a lot of the devastation from the earthquake in the low income housing areas. Then we went east to the town of Sumner, a former summer resort that now is lined with stacked containers protecting passerby's from falling pieces of hillside and homes that teeter atop the cliffs. The community itself still has life, but the earthquake definitely devastated large swaths of property along the Port Hills. From there, we traveled under the hills to the town of Lyttelton, the original settlement for Canterbury (an older French settlement was only added to Canterbury much later). Lyttelton also suffered a lot of damage with three very old buildings collapsing entirely and being demolished. The Port of Christchurch is located here, and all cruise ships stop here if they visit the city. We found a nice street market while we were there and I was able to purchase New Zealander sourdough bread which, while technically sour, is nowhere near as tasty as San Francisco-style sourdough. Returning to Christchurch proper, we went through the downtown area where our host explained how many tall skyscrapers have been demolished since the earthquake. The city was a hodgepodge of ruins and surviving buildings. A half-demolished theatre was at one end of the town while the ruined Christchurch Cathedral was at the other. The devastation was extensive and somewhat depressing, even though the city has been rebounding well.

Back at the house, Kara and I tried some pre-packaged pasta we had purchased at Pak 'n Save the day before. It was decidedly not as good as Pasta Roni. Kara won't be having hers again while I will have it sparingly. I think we'll have more success making our own mac 'n cheese and other pastas. Too bad tomato-based products cost so much here. In the afternoon, we scurried over to check out an apartment to rent only to discover dozens of people already there. Not only was the place unimpressive, but it was expensive for its unimpressiveness. And people were praising it! That didn't give us much confidence in finding housing. Kara doesn't really want the place at this point while I'd take it but prefer something else. Housing is not looking good.

We went to a local Chinese restaurant for dinner where I got lemon chicken. It's basically orange chicken but yellower. I didn't mind; it tasted great. Everyone else got more traditional Chinese fair. Blah. That pretty much ended Saturday for us. I'm finally working on my book again and have set goals, so let's see how well I keep them. Cheers!

Observations:

• All pre-pay cell phone plans charge 20¢ to check voicemail. This was not told to us in advance because it is so common knowledge here.
• Rental properties must include a washing machine and refrigerator and new tenants are required to sign a federally-backed rental agreement.
• Dinner is often called "Evening Tea", even if they don't serve tea at it.
• Dairy cows have their tails removed to make milking easier.