We went to do a walking tour of Christchurch that only cost NZ$8 and lasted 2.75 hours. The tour leader, Vicki, came back to New Zealand after 20 years in Australia and is a part time college microbiology teacher. She wanted to do something more with her time so she decided to volunteer as a tour guide. The tour was only scheduled for 2 hours but she just took us all over and kept talking until almost 1 PM. She was interesting and very knowlegeable and informative. What a great way to spend a morning!
Christchurch was founded about 1850 with the arrival of 4 ships from England. The ships were not very large (about 140 feet) and carried 150-200 passengers plus 30-40 crew along with everything they needed to establish a settlement (furniture, animals, etc.). They decided to build the town on the far side of the mountain from the port so after a grueling ship voyage everyone had to hike over the mountain with all their possessions. The pioneer spirit and strength was truly amazing!
During the tour we went into the dining hall of the old Christchurch College (which is now a private high school) and it looked just like the dining hall at Hogworts (for you Harry Potter fans). I half expected to see Headless Nick flying around.
After the tour I did one of my favorite things - eat. They had a bunch of food stalls (Czech, Korean, Greek, Thai) set up behind the Arts Center Courtyard and it was very difficult deciding what to get (I wanted some of everything). Shari and I ended up getting Thai noodles, a Thai pancake and chicken satay with peanut sauce. The noodles were disappointing but the rest was great.
We then did a bunch of touristy things - walked through the Botanical Gardens, toured the Canterbury Museum and then climbed the 134 steps in the spire of the Christ Church Cathedral. We are now sitting in Starbucks and I am enjoying a great cup of coffee as I write these notes.
I certainly hope we can find walking tours in the European cities that are as good as the one we did today. I enjoy hiking but today was a nice break from it, and we still managed to get good exercise with all the walking we did today.
Not only did we get out again tonight to buy ice cream, we each also bought 2 candy bars (I ate one of mine after I finished my ice cream).
3/31: Much quieter last night than with that noisy bunch the previous night. The fellow at reception this morning told us that if they hadn't left on their own, they would have made them leave. He said again that Kiwis (meaning the young New Zealander party people) and backpackers don't mix well at all.
We had no real plans for today so we went up to the square to take some pictures and then to visit the Vistitor Cener. We left Christchurch about 10 AM to drive to Lyttleton, which is the port city on the far side of the mountain from Christchurch. We wanted to see where the ships from England had landed and to get a sense of the mountians that the original settlers had to climb over.
The bay alongside Lyttleton was very pretty and we drove along Governor's Bay Road and then up Summit Road to see the bay on one side and Christchurch on the other. It was kind of foggy at the top so we decided not to do the summit drive and do a short hike (about 1 hour) instead. It started raining lightly while we were hiking and the continued on and off all day.
We drove out to visit the Orana Wildlife Park but it was raining so we just ate a sandwich in the car and decided to skip the park and drive on towards Nelson. We stopped in Hammer Springs because we thought we might want to go in the hot springs there and spend the night, but it didn't appeal to either of us so we drove on. We got to a tiny town, Murchison, about 6:30 PM, checked in to a small cabin at the Kiwi Park, went to the grocery store and came back to do notes and cook. It's a cute little place. We have a small room with 2 sets of bunkbeds right next to a small kitchen with a tv set (which surprisingly has great reception). There are only a few other people staying here and it's very quiet and very nice.
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