Saturday, Day 35 - Feb 10 - 8am to 5pm, Christchurch, South Island, New Zealand

Christchurch is the largest city of the South Island. Sprawling out across the Canterbury Plains, Christchurch was incorporated as a city in 1862. It was named after the Oxford College attended by John Robert Godley, leader of the settlers arriving in the first four ships o Christchurch. It is a charming city, a garden city with many parks within its boundaries. It suffered a devastating Earthquake after our 2009 visit, but is slowly being rebuilt. The city has a backdrop of the Southern Alps and long, ocean beaches are only a short drive away. This is our first time in this port, Lyttelton, for Christchurch.

Today we are doing a free ship’s tour of Christchurch, Tram, Tea & Gardens beginning at 10AM and lasting four hours. After seeming days of not being hungry or up to snuff, we both feel much better and have a nice breakfast in the Compass Rose before loading the back pack and heading to the theater. We have a nice big bus for the 29 of us. It takes about 30 minutes to drive to Christchurch where we change to the restored, heritage restaurant tram and we enjoy a beautifully presented, delicious morning tea while exploring Christchurch’s inner city vibrancy, heritage and landmarks: Cathedral Junction, the Gothic-style Arts Centre, the Canterbury Museum and New Regent Street.

The devastation is unbelievable. There are shells of buildings and empty space everywhere. It is not the beautiful city we first saw in 2009. But there is hope as there are areas of new buildings housing stores and eateries. It is hard though to get over the loss of the beautiful old buildings and just the massiveness of construction site. Surely they could have come up with a design(s) for earthquake proof buildings that would not be so ugly. The “Central Committee of the People’s Republic of New Zealand” is dictating everything that is done and it is downright ugly! This is said somewhat in jest, but with the few buildings selected to be restored, the new ones are rather out step with what the city was. The New Zealanders are a talkative, frank bunch and will tell you what they think. The last flew days we have had very talkative drivers and tour guides. There has definitely been an under current of displeasure with some of the direction the government is taking lately and not just from people in Christchurch. 

Back at the Museum, we  join the ‘Caterpillar’, an electric open-sided trolley bus that takes us on a guided tour through the Christchurch Botanic Gardens to see the best examples of native and exotic flora in New Zealand as well as New Zealand’s only World Peace Bell. We also have some free time here.

This is when disaster strikes. Carolyn gets sick on the trolley just as we finish the tour. Fortunately we have a few minutes for her to get her act together for the drive back to the ship. 

By the time we are back at the ship she is burning up and has a searing headache. Dick calls the Medical Center about seeing the doctor but they only open outside of office hours if it is a emergency as they will have to find him. Otherwise, come at 6PM. It is now about 2:30PM. It doesn’t seem like that big a deal so Carolyn goes to bed and falls asleep. At 6PM we head to Medical, where Dick fills out forms since Carolyn head is in orbit!

Things move rather slowly at first but then the nurse checks Carolyn’s temperature which is 103F and they can’t get a reading on blood pressure.  At that point things move right along, the doctor shows up, they finally get a pressure reading and listen to her chest. Which immediately precipitates a full blown work up...blood work, x-rays, throat and nose swabs, etc. The doctor tells us very bluntly that Carolyn is very sick and we need to find out ASAP what is going on....her fever is much too high for her age and her lungs are rattling!
The good and the bad: ....all the testing eliminates the flu, strep throat, and a couple of tropical nasties. But the x-ray confirms pneumonia and her white count is through the roof. They had put an IV line in to draw the blood and after some consultation with the doctor, they put her in the intensive care cabin and start an IV antibiotic and then something to bring the temperature down. An hour or so later the headache is mostly gone and she is feeling some better. The doctor comes back in with a bag of different medications and instructions. The whole experience was well handled and the staff very caring and attentive. Carolyn is on mostly bed rest for the next 72 hours, but the doctor feels like by then she will be feeling much better but will still have to take it easy for a while.

Back in the room the chef had sent some “chicken and rice soup” that looked rather vial. Carolyn dozes off while Dicks goes to dinner. When he gets back he orders her a scrambled eggs and rolls which actually is rather tasty. It is enough with all the meds to put Carolyn to sleep as we sail to Dunedin. Tomorrow will surely be better!