42 Hours and exhausted...but we're HERE!

OK, I keep forgetting how much effort it takes to get to the Southern Hemisphere...36 hours after getting up to drive to Seattle to catch our plane, we finally arrive in Christchurch, NZ (ugh!).
January 25th:
Drive to Seattle, check-in 3 hours early and wait for flight to San Fransisco, rush through the SFO airport to get to our international flight with a 50 minute connection window, fly from San Fran to Sydney and get there just in time for "brekkie".

Spend day in Sydney checking out the beautiful waterfront, the Sydney Opera House (design masterpiece-financial disaster)

and the Royal Botanical Gardens. Saw funky long curved beaked (and NOT shy) birds (ibis)

and noisy large white parrots, numerous sail boats, loads of runners...then back to the airport to connect with our 3 hour flight to Christchurch. January 28th: We arrive at our hotel at 1:00 AM...so tired our heads hurt from how much it hurts to keep our eyes open!
We only slept about 4 hours on the way to Sydney and stayed up all day outside in the warm humid sunshine to help reset our internal clocks. Must have worked as we woke up at 7 AM refreshed and spent the rest of the day doing a little sightseeing with our friend Chris who teaches at the University here.
Now our efforts turn to locating a decent vehicle to buy. Vehicles here are expensive to rent (+$100/day for a mini-van), so the hunt begins for a low cost purchase. Even if we sell it for 2K less than we paid we will still be waaaay ahead. Lots to negotiate though. First, apparently do not buy a campah van from other backpackers traveling NZ. Apparently they have had many owners, the odometer is usually suspect, and then there is the matter of legal title, a WOF (warranty of fitness...needed EVERY 6 months!) and a variety of other issues. Needless to say, we think we will go to one of the local used vehicle dealers or the local vehicle auction house. So, our morning tomorrow will be filled with looking at mini-vans and then it is off to the last international cricket game of the season (NZ vs. Pakistan). Tomorrow's game will be an "all dayer"...8 hours! About the amount of time to teach us only the basic rudimentary elements of the game! So until then...BATTER UP! er...whatever they say in cricket:)