Bob:

The shuttle in from the port area to downtown Christchurch turned out to be a rattle-trap city bus, so we endured a noisy, bouncy journey of about 10-12 kilometers punctuated by a narrow smelly tunnel where I was almost gagging on the diesel fumes. Yuck! Fortunately my nausea dissipated once we disembarked at Cathedral Square in downtown Christchurch and I could breath some (relatively) clean air. We had an Insight Pocket Guide to New Zealand and it gave us a very nice walking tour on a small map of the city center, and we decided to give that a try.

We started off taking a quick look at the Christchurch Cathedral that dominates one corner of the square. It was a rather pretty cathedral, and we were particularly fortunate that while we were standing there a children's choir from some local school came in to practice their Christmas concert. They were quite good and sang some very nice Christmas carols, so we sat quietly for a while to listen to them. But finally I became restless to see more of Christchurch, so we left the cathedral and picked up the path of the walking tour.

Monika:

Bob:

After walking a short block West we turned North to follow a path beside the River Avon, a very picturesque stream that meanders through the downtown area of Christchurch. We saw some ducks, which we expected, but also people "punting" on the river, which we didn't expect. "Punting" means you push a low, flat-bottomed boat along with a pole that goes down to the river bottom, and it's a type of thing otherwise done at Oxford in England. Punting only works in a fairly shallow river, of course, but the Avon River in Christchurch was clearly shallow enough for it to work.

The Avon had some very picturesque old bridges, and we crossed and re-crossed those as we followed the river north past the provincial council building to Victoria Square.

Monika:

Bob:

At Victoria Square we found, predictably enough, a statue of Queen Victoria but also a statue to Captain Cook. But we also found beautiful flower gardens and a large fountain with a family of ducks. The mother and father duck were shepherding around three small, fluffy, energetic little ducklings that were as cute as all get-out. However, there was also about 5 or 6 sea gulls sitting just above the duck family on the upper rim of the fountain, and I was pretty certain from the intent way the gulls were eyeing those three little ducklings that they would try to grab them and eat them the moment the parent's backs were turned. Shooing the closest gulls away from the ducks for at least a few moments, I continued to explore the park.

Over on one side was a tall wooden pole carved with Maori figures. In the Northwest area of the USA and Canada, I would call that a totem pole, but I am not at all sure that it serves anything like the same function in the Maori culture. Still, the carving was beautiful and I was intrigued to find that some of the faces carved in it were on their side, as it were, which is something I have never seen before. Shells with kind of a mother-of-pearl surface had been inset in the carving for eyes, and the effect was quite vivid and surprisingly lifelike.

Monika:

Bob:

Leaving the riverside path for a while, we zig-zagged through the central business district, catching sight of several interesting old buidlings that had been preserved. One of the nicest ones was the Theatre Royal on Gloucester Street. Very pretty. We closed off the first part of our walk by returning to Cathedral Square, but after passing through and reaching the Avon once again, this time we turned left to follow Oxford Terrace street to the South.

By the time we reached the war veteran's memorial on the Bridge Of Remembrance, which was a very nice triple-arch affair, we were getting a little tired and a lot hungry. So when we found a food court on Cashell Mall, a curious street of various and sundry shops, we bopped in for a quick meal. The food court turned out to be quite small but nice and offered hamburgers, sushi, and a Greek place that we finally settled on for lunch. We had chicken, salad, and dressing all rolled up in a large round flatbread, and that gave us enough energy to continue our walk along the Avon as it turned West. At the Antique Boat Sheds we saw some of the beautiful old wooden rowboats that are still used on the river. We even saw a young couple out for a rowboat excursion on the Avon as it looped around the Botanical Gardens.

Monika:

Bob:

Once inside the gardens we walked a nice loop, taking our time and examining many plants including some marvelously healthy looking trees. I saw a couple of huge trees that had a furrowed bark, tall stature, and bushy needle-like leaves that looked like California Redwoods to me, but they didn't have the little name tag that all the other plants had, so I couldn't be sure. Many other ferns, cicadas, and other strange bushes also lined the walkways of the gardens.

Monika:

Bob:

It turned out the botanical gardens had both an "old-fashioned" rose garden and a "modern" rose garden. We settled for rambling among the 90+ species of hybridized rose plants in the modern garden. Although it was early spring in New Zealand, many of those rose bushes were blooming like crazy and I enjoyed both smelling the fragrances and taking pictures of the nicest blossoms. We were too tired to take the extra hike out to see the old-fashioned rose garden that afternoon, but certainly I would like to see it some day.

Monika:

Bob:

Looping back to the entrance of the Botanic Gardens we found the Canterbury Museum and stopped off to spend a couple hours there. The first hall had a history of the Maori people and their settlement of New Zealand somewhere between 900 and 1100 A.D. Several full-sized dioramas, each the size of a small room, illustrated key aspects of the Maori culture like cooking, fishing, and so forth. The stone tools used to carve wood and weapons of war such as clubs and spears were also neatly displayed.

The most unique hall in the Canterbury Museum was one showcasing Antarctic exploration. Several Antarctic expeditions had sailed from New Zealand including Scott's ill-fated expedition to reach the South Pole. Many examples of both old-fashioned and modern Antarctic gear were on display and I had a wonderful time looking at the changes in things like goggles to prevent snow blindness, insulated shoes, and insulated clothing over the decades. The information was fascinating and I had a blast riding the snowmobile driving simulator, too!

The Hall of Birds let me finally get a close-up view of a couple of albatrosses like those that had followed our ship over to New Zealand. However, the ones in the museum were stuffed and since they didn't move around so annoyingly like the real, live ones, I was able to get some decent close-up shots. The albatross has a truly impressive wingspan but gosh do they also have a large, wicked-looking beak! The kiwi birds also had a fairly large, sharp beak, but looking at the fluffy little dumpling of a body that the kiwi has you just can't believe they would honestly try to hurt you (unlike the albatross).

Toward the end of our museum visit I was again running out of steam, but on the way out through the Hall of Transportation I took some pictures of two unique items: Maori canoes and the only completely gold-plated racing motorcycle I have ever seen! Catching back up with Monika in the gift shop, we wandered around and she found a nice necklace made out of greenstone, or jadite, and some nice tea towels that I bought for her.

Monika:

Bob:

Heading back toward Cathedral Square on Worcester Boulevard (a street named after a sauce??), we limped through the Arts Centre, a collection of artist studios that reminded me of the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, Virginia. The square footage was about the same, I think, but instead of 20+ artists with small studios the Arts Centre had maybe 7-9 studios, each with a lot more display space. I got sucked in by the woodworking artist's shop and couldn't resist purchasing intricately carved wooden Christmas ornaments for our kids and a ruler inlaid with 6 different kinds of native New Zealand wood.

Continuing down Worcester Boulevard we ran across a roadside stand offering authentic German Imbiss cuisine such as sausages, bratwurst, and rolls along with authentic German mustard. Ah, heaven! It is amazing that I can get so nostalgic for being in Germany despite my being an ethnic American, but I have heard similar stories from Americans once stationed in Germany. In any case, we had to stop and share a bratwurst. Somewhat to my surprise, it turned out to be really authentic as the little stand was run by a native German who imported his supplies. Curious how a German Imbiss came to be transplanted to Christchurch, New Zealand, we chatted with the proprietor in German while our bratwurst cooked. He seemed happy (relieved?) to speak his native language for a while and discussed the pros and cons of living in New Zealand. But as it turned out, he was thinking about returning to Germany and I asked why. As he put it so pithily (translated->), "Well sure the natural stuff here in New Zealand is wonderful and all that, but once you've seen it all what do you do then? I want to be in a city (like Hamburg, Berlin) where something is always happening and there's always something to do."

Monika:

Bob:

That gave me something to (mentally and physically) chew on as we ate our bratwurst while closing the loop back across the Avon River to the shuttle bus stop in Cathedral Square. Fortunately the trip back to the ship was on a nice, new tourist bus. I still smelled the diesel fumes in that very long tunnel, but it didn't seem to be as bad as in the morning or maybe I was just too exhausted to notice it anymore! Back on ship we just laid down until it was time to shower and dress for dinner, and after another nice evening chatting with Ed and Gayle and Keith and Colleen we called it a night.

Monika: