Days 1 and 2, January 25 – 26, 2020

We arrived in Christchurch, New Zealand, on a summery Saturday morning, having left winter and Friday behind at the International Dateline somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. We spent the next two days wandering around central Christchurch while adjusting to the 21 hour time leap, the left sided traffic, and the northern sun.

Arts Center

Small bookstore

Bridge of Remembrance

Christchurch is rebuilding after two major earthquakes in 2010 and 2011. New buildings are interleaved with earthquake damaged buildings and construction sites.

Back side of the Arts Center.

Artistic fencing around a construction zone.

The Cathedral has a long way to go:

There were plenty of people about enjoying the parks, shopping, dining and museums. We also came across street performances connected to the International Buskers Festival, 

and Chinese New Year.  

We visited the Canterbury Museum to get an introduction to Maori and natural history:

Maori and Moa

Greenstone

A bit of geology!

One of the curiosities in the museum was an small intact house decorated abundantly with abalone shells (Paua) by an enthusiastic couple:

We walked through Hagley Park a few times to get to our hotel.

New Zealand Gardens in the Hagley Park Arboretum:

Cabbage tree

Beech

Tree fern

Tilia

Other sites in Hagley park:

Peacock Fountain

Rose garden

Herbaceous border

echinacea

Punting on the Otakaro/Avon River

Sundial in the rose garden

magpie

We didn’t have enough time to see everything, but we knew we would be back in Christchurch in two weeks, so maybe we would see more then!