The day started at 7.30am, and I was raring to go with phone purchasing. I got up and ready, and went down to where the computer was available. There I found a phone book which included a copy of Yellow pages, so I used that to try and find options for phone shops.
I located a phone repair shop, as well as a shop which traded in second hand phones. After studying the map of Christchurch for a while I found where both are. I was also able to locate the Vodafone shop I had found at the library in Hokitika.
This exercise made me realise how dependant on the GPS/Map feature of the smart phones I've been using up to now, so I need to make sure to be more paranoid about the water proof abilities of my devices!
I headed out towards the first Vodafone shop after chatting with the girl in reception, and she determined that the Vodafone shop I was looking at opened at 8.30am. I decided that even if I got the phone today, by the time I could arrange a flight change it would be the 5th at the earliest, so I also booked in for an extra night, before leaving on the phone purhasing mission.
While I was en route to the Vodafone store, I came across a cafe, and as I had not had any breakfast, was feeling a bit peckish, so I decided to go in and grab a pie. It was very hot, so I had to take care while walking along Tuam street, so that I didn't burn my mouth.
It seemed to be quite far to the store, though that may have been due to the fact I didn't want to miss the place, and was not familiar with the surroundings.
When I made it to the store, I discovered that it was actually 9.30 that it opened, but as it was only 20 past, I decided to just go along the road a bit and wait, where I found a sculpture of trees, made from the recovered wood from a house that had been destroyed by the earthquake in 2011. The artist's concept was that the wood was being made back in to trees after being made in to a house.
Back at the phone shop, I chatted with the person and we discovered that the phone I was looking at as my possible replacement, was not in fact rated to any level for water resistance, so despite being in my price range, did not fit the bill. With that, I decided to go on to Riccarton to try the second hand phone shop. I made it to the park, though the route I had taken meant I was still on the main road West, making it appear less park like. I took a wrong turn wen I got to the other side of the park, and ended up going along the road parallel but to the north. I started to suspect my mistake when it looked like there was no shops at all on this road, while the map I had looked at previously showed a few.
While I was on this road, I came across an entire house that was shrink wrapped, complete with an advertising label on the plastic stating the company would shrink wrap anything. Further investigation revealed that this was the Mona Vale, a heritage building that was being restored.
Just past the house, there was a level crossing, and a path that went back south along side the railway track, so I took that track and found myself in the middle of a residential area, where one particular house had some builders doing work there. I checked with one of them about being on the correct route for Westfield and they confirmed the direction for me.
I was clearly over keen to reach my destination by this point, as the first place that looked like some kind of shopping area, I fuond a phone repair shop, and went in thinking it was the second hand phone shop, though they were confused about my expectations to this end, as they were in fact the wrong shop! They advised that i had to go another 5 minutes or so walk further to reach Westfield, which I dutifully did.
I eventually found my destined shop, though they only had 5 or 6 phones second hand on sale, and none of them matched the criteria I had set, though they advised to try another store elsewhere in the mall. I was unable to locate this, but did venture in to a place called 2°ree; That store was also unable to provide a phone but the girl there remembered that there was a Sony shop in the mall and directed me there. This was a great idea, as I found a Sony xPeria M5 there, which although it was a little over the price I was hoping for, was brand new, and water proof, with a high quality camera, so I went for that.
Having achieved the main goal of the day, I ventured in to STA travel in the same mall to get some ideas about how to manage the Australia portion of my trip, as this was still not determined, and I needed to sort out getting from Sydney to Launceston and back, with least cost possible. They gave me some good price ideas and confirmed that to change the flights for the main legs, I still needed to contact the branch back in Glasgow.
I walked back towards the city, armed with the new phone, along with new case I had bought for it, and located Re:start mall. I had missed it on the way over, due to it being made out of shipping containers. I had a quick look round, and then went to the bus station to find out about the options for getting cheap pulic transport, as it had felt quite far to Riccarton, and I had a few more days to go in Christchurch.
I decided after speaking with the staff member at the bus station, that I would not really save much money if any by investing in a card, and it would be too complicated for my short stay, so I went without. Having made that decision, I went on to the New World supermarket in the southern mall (which I could locate more easily now I had map and GPS again!), and got te groceries for my last few days in New Zealand bought.
The rest of the day weas spent pdating the phone to the latest software versions, and arranging my dinner (lamb burgers potato and carrot was my option again as it was quick and easy and reasonably healthy !)
The Japanese group of people were in the kitchen again so I helped them with their English practice, then as it became day time in the UK, I made the calls to STA travel and the letting agency as they had left me voicemails asking me to call. With that all sorted out, I went to bed, ready to do some actual touristy stuff for the next day.