New Zealand; Day 1

We're off on our NZ holiday, and so far have survived day 1. Hey, it involved a three hour flight with a toddler, so don't knock our efforts.

Up at dark o'clock and at the airport by just after 7am. Our Pacific Blue flight was remarkably comfortable, and Eleanor did better with her ears on take off and landing than I did with mine. By the time we commenced descent into Christchurch she was past nap time and getting ratty, but a Chuppa Chup from the bottom of my handbag solved everything. A big hello to Ashleigh the flight attendant, who spent about 10 minutes playing "tickle-me-Eleanor" with a very receptive participant.

Our hire car is a Subaru Outback, and nice to drive (although the Japanese-side indicators are a constant battle against our European habits). Installing the child seat turned out to be both faster and easier than getting back to where I'd agreed to pick up Bevan and Eleanor. As tempting as it was, sanity prevailed and I obeyed the "Authorised Vehicles Only" signs that prevented me from going where I really wanted to. Airports stopped being the sort of place where one could risk such a stunt a bit over nine years ago. In the end it was free to stop for 15 minutes in the short term parking, so it all ended well. And I don't know what it cost us, but with all the one way streets around where we're staying adding GPS to our car hire was money VERY well spent.

Our motel is just north of the city centre in Richmond, walking distance from Christchurch's equivalent of Lygon Street Carlton, which is just around the corner from Christchurch's equivalent of Grey St, St Kilda (that's just a guess, but we passed three girls just standing around on street corners for no discernible purpose wearing heels that were almost as high as their hemlines).

Eleanor claimed the couch as her bed straight away,which was lucky because it's a sofa bed and that's exactly where we had planned for her to sleep. She was out like a light within a couple of minutes, but all things considered she has put in an exceptionally cooperative day.

Our first impression of Christchurch is that the earthquake was very lucrative for both the scaffolding and temporary fencing industries. There's a lot of visible damage around; brick fences propped up with concrete blocks, restaurants that are closed and buildings with large sections covered in tarpaulins. It's actually worse that we expected.

We had a fantastic dinner at The Bodhi Tree, which is a Lonely Planet recommended Burmese restaurant. The tea and lentil salad had great flavours and an unexpected but delightful crunchy texture. The menu style is a bit like tapas; you order 2-3 small dishes per person and lots of steamed rice. We had tempura style vegetables, garlic prawns, pork dumplings and a mild chicken curry, which was a wonderfully broad range of flavours and textures. A really memorable dinner.

We wandered home along the banks of the Avon river, which is so shallow and clear that you can see the ducks rummaging for nibbles among the pebbles at the bottom, and huge black fish chasing them. Took lots of photos with the new camera, which I'm happier with by the minute.