Days 1-2: Home-Christchurch

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Day 1: home - Christchurch

Thanks to Alice’s dedication in rising at 5am to drive us to the airport, we arrived in plenty of time to wander through the stupefying range of duty-free goods at Tullamarine before boarding a not-quite-full little plane on its journey to Christchurch. The trip across the Tasman was uneventful, but on approaching Christchurch it became apparent to us why Peter Jackson overspent his helicopter budget by so much on Lord of the Rings. Every break in the clouds revealed a new snowcapped-mountain landscape, as if the island has an unending supply of them.

From our landing to arrival at the hotel was a slow pan of successive scenes of form-filling. One of these involved a declaration that we were carrying no form of organic matter that might decimate any of NZ’s industries that grow things. Imagine Helen’s dismay when a sweet-faced but inwardly gleeful beagle nosed at her backpack and nodded to his handler with a curt “Here’s one. Book ’em, Danno.” Helen explained that the bag had previously contained an apple in Maroochydore, Australia, but was now clean. After a fruitless search of the bag, the Customs dogwalker politely conceded defeat. The clearly disappointed beagle demanded his treat anyway, and trotted off still shaking his head.

We finally wandered wearily around the inner city, which resembles a regional Victorian city more than an island capital, and is the more attractive for that. The Marina Chinese restaurant proved friendly service and good value. We retired early to assess the quality of NZ television. Rugby and motor sports are big on Sky.

Day 2: Christchurch

In the grey morning, the city centre of Christchurch is still pretty, and still remarkably light on for traffic. Weather is cold (max. 9), so a visit to the Antarctic Centre seemed appropriate. It was as good as we’d been promised. Highlights were a simulated freezing windstorm and a joyride in an amphibious all-terrain vehicle that can climb 40 deg. inclines and travel through a metre of water.

It seems to be a Gaylard curse that every trip includes at least one visit to an attraction that turns out to be closed. So it was with the Christchurch gondolas (one of NZ’s many acrophobic-unfriendly attractions), which weren’t running, because no-one could see anything from them through the rain and fog. Helen’s disappointment at this seemed less than wholehearted. We went for our own scenic drive instead, and managed to see a bit of territory from hilltop vantage points when the weather briefly permitted. We’ll try again tomorrow for the gondolas.

We finished off the day at the arts centre and museum, both good but neither startling.

Andrew

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Photos

Christchurch CBD
This is right in the commercial heart of the city

Blind tasting
Chinese restaurant - cool bottle cover

Line-up
Emperor penguin not as big as he thought he was

Antarctic marine life
As seen in aquarium at Antarctic Centre

View to Lyttleton
Weather breaks briefly for photo op

Lyttleton (2)
From further along the ridge - sunshine makes brief appearance for rainbow purposes

Comments

[ALICE]

HOW GREAT
HI mum and dad! Thought I would be the first to posta comment! The pictures were amazing, mum it is bizarre how much you resemble a penguin, that was the purpose of that photo was it not?!!! Not much to report, cold here to, Cam's here for the week with Clive. Have a good time and more photos next time! they were great!