New Zealand, much better than Old Zealand

Hey guys! Its Phil (of the future) just letting you all know that I am alive and well. The reason why I'm from the future is that I crossed the international dateline, so technically I'm in the future...But anywho, I just landed in New Zealand yesterday and its been pretty good. Basically after our 2nd day of orientation, we all got on a flight from Denver to LAX, then LAX to New Zealand, then we did a flight from Aukland to Christchurch. I flew on a 747-700, which I learned was a double decker from my personal aviation expert.

I didn't sleep much on those flights, but it wasn't too bad...just the standard 19+ hours flying or being in an airport. I got a couple photos, but its of an airport and really not that exciting. Nothing major happened during those flights, so now on to New Zealand...

Christchurch is pretty small but its not too bad. The picture that is to the left of this text is taken far above the city, looking out to the most "New Zealand looking landscape" I could think of. Our hotel, Hotel "So", is very modern. My room very small for a hotel room. But what it lacks in size it makes up for in ambiance. I have mood lighting and mood settings on my tv, as well as modern furniture and alarm clock. I know what your saying "Phil, honestly what is so cool about this alarm clock?"

Well, let me tell you...it slowly dims up the lights, plays music and turns on the tv to a mood tv that matches the music. I think that is awesome, and well worth all the money Raytheon is paying to have me live in this hotel for the next two days. Google "Hotel So" and you guys will see what I'm talking about.

Anyway, the city of Christchurch is small and there aren't a whole lot of sights to see. Lee, warned me of this before I went on this trip. Shout out to Lee and Alex Davis! The photo that is way above, was taken on top of a mountain/old volcano, that me and a couple guys went to. There is a tram that goes to the top. I did do a little hiking around the city/area before hand, and the beauty here is amazing. There were tons and tons of mountain sheep, which was cool. It was very surreal to see these free range sheep climb this mountain/unactive volcano/peak.



Anyway. After that we went back to the Hotel and met up with some people from our group. We were able to go to this bar called "fat jerrys" or something. They had trivia night, so of course we played. It was sponsored by "Tui" beer, which has trivia questions under the caps. The two hosts, both bar managers" drink the beers and read the questions as they come up. They kill like 24 beers between the both of them by the end of the game. One of the guys is actually from the States, GA, to be specific. He moved to New Zealand and started up this bar with a couple friends. The bar was pretty decent. Though we defiantly lost the trivia game. We did win best yo mama joke (they have a round of that between the teams). Oh and the bar did buy us all a round of beer, because we were in last place. But honestly all the questions were about Rugby and New Zealand facts. Which is what you get when the beer is made by New Zealanders in New Zealand.

Shortly after the Trivia, we stayed and listened to LA Mitchell, who was having her album release party at the bar. It was very good music and she was a very talented artist. I had to leave early though because I was wicked tired. So that was day one in New Zealand. I'll try to post day two before I go on the ice. Take care.