New Zealand - celebrating 3 years of marriage

Yesterday Jodie and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary. It was a great day. We woke up early in Auckland in order to catch our morning flight to Christchurch. We had a bit of a close call when the cab we had scheduled to pick us up never showed, but luckily I happened to find one shortly so we made our flight in time. We landed in Christchurch to some crummy Portlandesque weather, it felt a lot like home. We had booked a hotel in advance knowing that we would be bed deprived, and it was a welcomed site after camping for a week. The hotel is very contemporary and looks like an Ikea catalog. The rooms are very small but nice and clean. We took advantage of the free internet to catch up on emails and to chat over skype with our families. We are so glad that we bought our netbook before we left, it has been great to be able to stay connected. Although, we often find ourselves randomly driving around neighborhoods at about 5 mph searching for wireless. Last night we decided to splurge and veer away from our normal diet of pasta and soups. We tried out a nearby Thai restaurant where we were seated right next to the glass windows facing the street. The food was decent but the real entertainment came in the form of us pretending to be mannequins when people walked by. I don't think we fooled anyone but we had a good laugh. Today we are heading north of Christchurch to start exploring the South Island.