Last week my flight back down to Dunedin from Hamilton ended up having an aborted landing due to some extreme weather in Dunedin. I wasn’t even aware that it was that bad until we were coming in to land and I noticed that there seemed to be lakes in places that there were previously only fields. The wind blew the plane sideways as we were making our approach, causing the landing to be aborted only a few meters from the ground. Instead of being home in Dunedin we ended up in Christchurch for the evening, put up in a hotel by Air New Zealand with a new flight booked the next day. Unfortunatly for me the flight back was 5pm the next day so instead of wallowing in sorrow I decided to make the most of my time in Christchurch and see some of the sights that I’d never quote gotten around to looking at.

When I got to the hotel in the evening the Taxi driver from the airport had tried to scam me a little by taking a bit of a stupid route to get to the hotel. Unbeknown to him I had my phone in my hand with google maps up so blatantly saw the point where he turned off the main road and drove in the opposite direction before making 2 right turns and driving back towards it again. I just kept quiet in the back waiting for it to play out when we arrived. He was politely told that there is no way I am paying what he asked for and if he wanted to argue I would happily debate the matter in the conveniently located police station across the road. Safe to say I ended up paying a more reasonable sum and went on my merry way.

The next morning I decided to stretch my legs and went for a walk to the Christchurch Aircraft museum. I managed to get there just in time for a free guided tour and look into the areas where they are restoring some of the old planes too which was really interesting and a good look into all the impressive work that they do when restoring these huge aircraft back to their original conditions.

Since I was a bit outside of the centre I decided that the best thing to do was to get some form of transport into town when I remembered that Christchurch (unlike Dunedin) has Uber, I would take an Uber into town. A few clicks later the ride was booked and arrived on time to drop me off near Haggley park for a nice strole in the sun. I can completely see why Uber has taken off so well as it just works so easily for someone needing a ride somewhere. When booking, you can clearly see what you are going to pay up front and then when you arrive you just get out and go on your way, no need to sort payment as it is all done within the app. To add to that you know how long you need to wait and where the car is that is coming to pick you up so no anxiety on if you’ve missed your taxi. I was happily impressed with the experience overall.

After a wonder by the river and something to eat I then had my next genius plan. While looking at the costs for an Uber to the airport I realised that Christchurch also has had an invasion of Lime electric scooters and I could probably try and take one of them all the way to the airport. As it turns out this was one of the best plans I have had to date! The Lime scooters work by using the app to unlock the scooter for $1 and then paying $0.30 per minute that you are using it to get to wherever you were going. I had 2 hours to get to the airport and Google maps said I could walk it in that time anyway so what the hell, I went for it. Zooming along the route to the airport was actually a lot of fun and way better than spending the time couped up in a Taxi or Uber in traffic while I looked out the window. Instead I got to see a little more as I whizzed along and arrived at the airport feeling energised and excited, especially since it only cost me $12.70 for the whole ride compared with an estimated $36 in an Uber or $49 in a traditional Taxi.

I think the Electric scooter craze isnt going to go anywhere, especially in student/tourist locations like Christchurch and places that are pretty flat. They are convenient to get about quickly, especially if you are primarily on foot, however there are some dangers that need to be addressed with them in the near future to keep everyone safe. Unfortunatly not everyone has balance or common sense so you do find them parked in stupid places or see people that have no place using any form of motorised vehicle zooming along as a potential hazard. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out in the future, hopefully with some more safety in mind and hopefully coming to Hamilton by the time I get there!