Dec 25-27th (The trip over)

The trip began rather ominously with our arrival at DFW airport a good 2 hours prior to our flight, only to be told on check-in
that it was too late to check our bags.  It turns out this was due to our flight being moved up 2 hours (!) which they had neglected
to notify us of.  We scrambled to get on the flight, which was fortunately running late, and made it to Houston without too much 
trouble.  Our flight to NZ left on time, but due to strong headwinds, the flight took an extended amount of time (15 hours) leaving
us to scramble to make our connector, which was delayed by slow baggage check-in.  However, we eventually made it onto our flight,
and after a short hop, arrived in Christchurch a little before noon. 

Our motel room was not ready at the time, so we went in search of lunch, which proved to be harder than expected to find, as it was both
Sunday and coming off a holiday.  Finally, we found a Burger King that was open, and had a reasonably delicious lunch.  We returned to
the motel, checked in (Well, after I briefly managed to lock my wife in the car) and took a nap.  Both of slept pretty much like logs, awakened
only briefly by Nick's texts of woe regarding his flight.  Later than evening, we walked around the city center a bit, which seemed
notably revitalized, if still considerably under restoration, and picked up some wine.  On the way back, we stopped by the Himalayas, an 
Indian restaurant at which we'd eaten before and picked up some take-out.  It was quite delicious, and we spent the rest of the evening
relaxing, hydrating, and consuming our wine.