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Todays weather has been gorgeous. I have even been in the shorts...though in fairness my jeans were in the wash, at last! Got up after a great sleep at around half 9. Was greeted by Victoria (2and a half) and Costa, who then took me out. We drove about 10mins out of christchurch and up the hill, to a place called the sign of the kiwi. From here, we did a loop walk which took about an hour ithink. It should have been less, but Victoria did a lot more walking than we expected, and she did very well considering her short legs! From this walk, we got some great views both down into the valley which christchurch sits in(big and flat, and smoggy?!) and also out to the sea. Like i said, gorgeous weather! At the end of our loop, we got ice creams from this cool little cafe by the sign of the kiwi. I had a cookies and cream, it was very good, and only $1.50, like 60p for a good sized scoop! From here, we returned home for some lunch.
After lunch I did my own thing for the afternoon. I borrowed a bike and cycled
into the city centre, and locked up at cathedral square. This would act as the start and end point of my walking tour. I started by looking around the cathedral, not huge but still quite impressive, before heading down towards victoria square. This is less a square, more a big garden, named after queen victoria. Weird seeing statues of our old royalty in parks out here! The "square" had a couple of impressive water fountains, but the weirdest thing, the river avon runs through it! At this point, i should mention the sign i saw a week a go. It read: For england visit Christchurch. For New Zealand visit Westport. The sign is not wrong, christchurch is very much like england! On the far side of this square was the town hall, not that great to be honest!
My next stop was the Provincial Government buildings...or i think this is what they were called! Probably one big building, but made up of various sections, added on at different architectural periods, giving a slighty strange looking result. The inside was very cool though, with wooden arched corridoors, and at one end a very grand hall. I watched a video in
here about the building and what it was used for but to be honest, the video wasnt great so i cant remember most of it! Just a long the road from here was the COCA, or the centre of contemporary art. Not a big establishment compared to some, but had some decent stuff in, or at least by my opinion! Spent a reasonable time in here checking out all the work on show. My next stop kept to the art theme, and was the canterbury art museum. The building itself is very modern, big, curvy, glass frontage, with a big open foyer inside. Work ranged from 19th century New Zealand art all the way up to modern stuff. Again, spent a bit of time in here seeing everything.
My final two stops of the tour were the arts centre and the Canterbury museum. The arts centre is a complex consiting of various buildings (all of which look a bit tudour i think) containing various galleries and crafty type shops. Thats crafty as in hand-made craft, not crafty as in they try to take your money! It was also the weekend market here, so with soo many different stalls and
foods on sale, from different parts of the world, I didnt really get to see the centre itself. Oh well, maybe another time! The canterbury museum, just opposite, was really impressive. It has the usual sections like stuffed animals, antartic, dinosaurs etc, but a large bit of the ground floor is a mock up of an old christchurch street, with shops you can walk into, to see various displays. I like the way they had done it, bit more interesting that just another room full of cabinets! Having looked around, i enjoyed a strawberry smoothie on the top floor, whilst overlooking the christchurch gardens.
Tour over, well not quite, a driver shouted at me for directions, and i realised it was Colin, a guy who i had spent a couple of evenings with in Queenstown. Had a quick chat with him, until the light went green and he had to go. Tour over, I biked backed to Costas where i enjoyed a very nice meal, two courses, and not pasta! After tea, Costa and I wrapped up warm, and left to go the super-14 final. Crusaders vs Warratahs. The game was at 7:30, and already cold, but i had
enough layers dont fear! Great game, the home team (yes a home advantage in the final!) won by 8 points i think. Atmosphere lacking though, since one whole sde of the ground is missing, whilst they build a new section.
A longish blog for just one day I guess, but since the internet is free, I figured why not!
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