Christchurch
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Christchurch,
New Zealand
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
After an express to Christchurch yesterday, with only brief stops to visit the Church of the Good Shepherd, which is made entirely from materials gathered from the shores of the lake by which it stands, and which has a view from its principal window to make Dibley jealous, I was at the end of my journey with Stray, and no longer a strayee. I was also getting ready to make my way back to Auckland and prep for Fiji.
It was too pleasant a day to do much in the town, so I spent the first half of my day in Christchurch, which is perhaps the most English of the New Zealand towns that I have visited, sitting by the Avon river, writing my journal and soaking up the spring sun. I also people-watched. After this I took a wander downstream and caught sight of an eel swimming in the crystal clear river, as well as the more usual sprinkling of ducks and waterfowl. It all came togeter nicely with the grass to make a rather civilised and English-type scene.
In the afternoon, I still did not feel inclined to do much other than wander, so I followed the tram tracks out of Cathedral Square up to the Botanic Gardens, where I spent a pleasant couple of hours wandering through manicured gardens and semi-wild woodland that was spotted with unintrusive sculptures, a particular favourite of mine being the giant daffodil. I only went back to the hostel when grey clouds threatened to soak me, though in the end, the rain did not come at all.
My only other errand today was to buy my ticket for the Transalpine train over the Arthur's Pass. This took a little while as it was bank holiday weekend and everone else had the same idea as me, so it was a frustratingly long wait that I had in the Tourist Information centre, but with nothing else to do and necessity in my way, I had to suck it up and wait it out. I managed to get one of the last cheap tickets which made it marginally less annoying.
My overall impression of Christchurch is that it is a very English city. Everything has a place and an order, rather like the Victorian grid structure of roads but more fluid. The Avon river makes it a very tranquil place, though as with my visit to Queenstown, I am between seasons in terms of visitors, so it may have been a different story if I had been there in the crowds...
Stil, I wasn't and I liked it, though I would not have wanted to stay for too long.
