We arrived in Christchurch on a Friday, picked up our rental car, a Honda CRV (pictured here, although not in Christchurch) and took the 15 minute drive to the hotel. We were worried about getting lost, but everything is so empty here, only a complete moron could get lost. My first impression of the city is that it wasn't. It felt like a large suburban town about 40 years ago, or at least how those kinds of everyone knows everyone kinds of places are portrayed on TV. Wide streets, well kept houses and manicured lawns, no traffic and friendly people. The downside of this, of course, is Christchurch isn't exactly a must see on a global traveling itinerary.
We checked into our hotel, the George, in the city center next to the sprawling Hagley Park. The exterior is hideous, a white cement bunker. But open the door, and the lobby is quite hip, with a happening bar in the middle of the lobby, and very friendly, professional service. But, open the door again, this time to our room, and it's back downhill. The room is cramped, everything is beige and not well designed, and the bathroom is purely functional. After about 30 minutes in the room, our stuff was covering every inch of the room because there are no closets or storage. George (5) Room-2, Facilities-6, Service-6, Wow-0.
We got dressed and went to dinner at a nearby restaurant called Grimbly's, which is located in a renovated 100 year old Gothic style school building. The restaurant is beautiful, with huge ceilings, a fireplace and wonderful staff, who were also a bit lonely since the place was only about half full. She gave us incredible detail about where everything we ate and drank came from and also told us about the hurricane that hit Christchurch yesterday, one of the worst ever. The food was very good, the wine excellent, and made for a very good introduction to Christchurch.
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