M-whY

There was enough time to get oriented with the city, but not enough for any sightseeing. Like Auckland, Christchurch has a large international presence. A couple times I walked into shops to be greeted by asian shopkeepers in japanese. There was a large food court serving only asian cuisine. I stopped here for a plateful of Malaysian food before resuming my wandering.

I wasn't walking around aimlessly. In fact, I had three specific goals I wanted to accomplish before calling it a day. First, I wanted to get some cream for my sandfly bites. Back at Milford Sound, the sandflies were ruthless. Sandfly bites don't begin to itch until about a day after you're bitten. Immediately after returning from Milford Sound, I was fine. But now I counted over a dozen itching bumps on my hands and arms, and several more on my feet. The itching made it difficult to sleep, and the cortizone cream seemed to be ineffective as a soothing agent.

Task one was easy to accomplish. I found a drug store right as they were about to close, and asked the lady at the counter to recommend something that would end the torture. She picked out a tube of Anthisan cream.

"And this will stop the itching?" I asked.

"Yep."

My next goal was to find a towel to replace the one I had lost about a week ago. I wasn't too disappointed in losing the towel, in fact, I think subconsciously I left it behind on purpose. It was one of those PakTowels, advertised to be quick drying and good for travel. What they didn't tell you is that after a couple uses, it developed a nasty stink that wouldn't go away, even if you took care to air it out every night.

To save myself some time, I asked the drug store lady where I might find some towels.

"Towels? You can find them at Ballantynes. It's the big department store across the street. You can't miss it."

Ballantynes just happened to have a sale on towels. I found one a bit smaller than what I'm used to at home, but the perfect size for storing in my pack. And it only set me back $9 NZ ($1 NZ = $.70 US).

My last goal proved to be the most difficult. I was wearing my jeans, which were always a bit loose to begin with, but lately I seemed to have lost a good deal of weight. I was at a point where I could pretty much slip off my jeans without even unbuttoning them. I felt like Jared from the Subway commercials. I needed a new belt.

(Note: I did bring a belt on my trip, but add that to the list of things I've lost. I don't even know when or where I lost it. I just happened to notice it was gone.)

Ballantynes carried a selection of belts. But a quick check of the price tags told me to look elsewhere. I couldn't afford $50-60 NZ for a belt. For that much money, I could fatten myself up to fit my jeans again.

I walked around for nearly an hour, looking for anything that might keep my jeans up. A belt, a piece of rope, or even plain old clips. No luck. All the stores were beginning to close up for the night. Shopping in a foreign city without a car was a lot more difficult than I imagined. I guess I'd just have to take care of this another day.

Where is a stupid Walmart when you need one?!

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