Day Eight - Flight Back to Brisbane

Day 8
I didn’t make it past 9. We started watching Spiderman 3, and I passed the f@#! Out about 15 minutes into it. Holiday Inn was cool though. It was the gateway back to civilization. Comfortable beds, lots of space, Futurama, Family Guy, AFV, and a hot shower, with, more importantly, a warm place to change after the shower. But it was an early morning. We woke up about 405am, got all our shit in order and got a cab to the airport. Christchurch is a beautiful little city, one stretch of one the main roads is bordered by a park, lined with willow trees and tulips. Stunning. Saw two tansvestite prostitutes out in full form on the way, but other than that, the scenery was beautiful, good way to say goodbye to New Zealand. Got a little flak at the airport for claiming my DUIs on the landing page, but it was pretty easy. The guy was nice, but they have to question everybody with any sort of conviction. They were also filming a COPS-type show at customs/quarantine, but they were in a different area when we were there. I planned on getting a few hours sleep on the plane, but after about one, I was awakened by the flight attendants laughing hysterically at what must have been the funniest thing in the world. Oh well, I struck up a conversation with one who kinda looked like my 6th grade girlfriend, and told them I’d rather wake up to laughing than an annoying alarm clock or something.
Brent picked us up from the airport and we went back to his place, unpacked a bit, showered, and went shopping. We grabbed a bite to eat at a Portugese place called Nando’s and then relaxed at home for a bit. Brent had set up a reservation for lawn bowling later in the day, and we headed off for that about 245pm. For $5, from 3-5pm, we played lawn bowling. Super fun. It seems to be a traditional game, but has caught on with the younger crowd as well. Our club was right by the riverfront, it was great. We bought a couple “jugs” of beer and learned the game. The lanes are on a large lawn that is cut just like a putting green on a golf course. You first roll the jack and center it to the middle of the lane. You then take six balls and see who can roll them closest to the jack. The balls are weighted on one side, so they curve with the roll, making it more interesting. Scoring is exactly like shuffleboard as far as the closeness to the jack. It was a good time. A bit more refreshing than regular bowling, being outside and all. Brent was the only one that played before, and he and Kristin won the first game. Then, the “Amiricans” took over. Tom and I won the last two games to go home victorious. We saw the weirdest thing when we were about done bowling. Outside in the street, an older woman had a pet dog on a leash, and a pet SHEEP, not on a leash. They crossed the street and the sheep was kinda disobeying its owner, we’ll call her Mary, and it ran off a bit, with the cutest little jumping, kicking gait. Seriously, a pet sheep? Brisbane has at least 2 million people. It’s a big city. A pet sheep.
After lawn bowling we went to get something to eat. Brent and Kristin have wanted to try a steak house called Breakfast Creek. It was unique for sure. You order cafeteria style, you can pick your steak out of the window like a butcher shop, and all the seating is basically outdoors with awnings and coverings and canopies all over. I got a Wagyu striploin with “a 7+ marbling”. Wagyu is supposedly some of the best beef you can buy anywhere. It was fantastic. Buttery, melt in your mouth awesome. I paired it up with a unique glass of shiraz, which beyond the berries and plums, had mint and eucalyptus undertones as well. It was a great, satisfying meal. Kristin hd to go home and work on a project after that, so Brent, Tom, and I went and had a couple pints at the Ice bar, a nice little establishment near his apartment. It was refreshing to kick back a little and have some bonding conversation. A lot of bars here are very concerned with serving very cold beer. Ice bar is one of them. Several of the handles had a thermometer on them to tell you how cold they were, and they had a Glycol system which was set up to have the metal pipe that has the handles on it, frozen over at all times. It was pretty cool. After the bar, we walked home and went to bed. Looking forward to the Gold Coast and the beach tomorrow.