Christchurch 1
Trip Start
Sep 03, 2007
1
93
220
Trip End
Jun 17, 2009
Christchurch,
New Zealand
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
The first half of the run was next to the coast and we had great views of the blue Pacific breaking against the rocks and beaches. We passed an enormous area of sea salt pans and went through many tunnels cut in the coastal rock. Turning inland the track passed through valleys and over wide rivers, all very low or dry. There were great areas of vineyards and in the distance the mountains were covered in clouds.
We had phoned a B & B at a station stop and once we reached Christchurch it was a short taxi ride to the vintage house and its new annexe
Kaikora Range
. We had time to walk round the area, through the Cathedral Square (which is the town centre) and ate supper at a seafood pub. Christchurch was established in the 1850´s and based on an English town, many of the street names are of British towns.Thursday 27th
As we had decided to journey to South Island first we had nothing arranged. Several enquiries resulted in a car hire and we then made plans to move on, on Saturday. We explored more of the town and decided what else we wanted to see in Christchurch.
Friday 28th
A cloudy start but it was warm in town as we looked around. We saw a memorial statue to Scott of the Antarctic, most of the Antarctic expeditions set sail from Christchurch; we had a sail (?) on a punt on the river Avon (terribly English!); we rode round the town on the revamped vintage trams and visited the Cathedral, which was strangely simple after the ornate churches we had seen in South America.
In the evening we went to a tiny (14seats) cinema to watch a comedy film and then had supper in a Beatles themed restaurant. During the evening it had started to rain - time to move on!!
We liked Christchurch for its quietness and there was certainly a sense of familiarity because of its `Englishness´. It had a safe and relaxed feel and was similar to the atmosphere in the 50´s, yet it had all modern facilities. This tended to detract from the sense of adventure in exploring somewhere `foreign´, a strange feeling seeing we were so far from home.
