Full day in Christchurch – 25th February 2010

This is better. Bit more leisurely. Got up and showered and in for breakfast at 9:00am. Stoked up and then went out for a walk around the city. Victoria Square is the name of the gardens in front of the hotel. Lovely little spot where the river Avon runs through the grounds and you can hire a punt and a punter. We didn’t do that. Walked around to the theatre alongside the Town Hall and saw a group of scruffy roadies hanging around a couple of massive rigs. Tom Jones appearing tonight. Blimey. No chance of a ticket, fully booked up.

The city of Christchurch, just like loads of cities throughout the world, used to have a tram network and got rid of it. Christchurch, however, had the sense to realise it had lost a major attraction so re-instated a loop around the city centre. They picked up four of their old trams from various places and did them all up and now have a really neat little system in place. The trams are from the 1920’s and are quite wonderful. The tram driver gives a running commentary. We went on two of the four trams and the sense of humour of the drivers is a hoot. They are now extending the tram track to cover more of the city centre.

Hagley Park is a huge place and is just a short hop from the centre. It has lots of open grass for field games and sports. We had a good walk around but only got as far as the croquet club! We then found a most pleasing memorial walk alongside the Avon (it gets around a lot does that river). This was in and around the botanic gardens. We then came across an electric train thing that was quite comfortable and saved a heck of a lot of walking. After seeing a lot of the gardens we ended up at a nice cafe in the gardens and had another iced coffee. These are now our most favourite drink for a hot day. Nice tall glass with milky coffee in it, couple of scoops of ice-cream and whipped cream squirted over the top with cinnamon sprinkled over that. Oh Yes!! It is that good.

Got the tram back to the centre and chilled out a bit in the hotel and waited for Joe Cannon to come and pick us up. He took us for a spectacular drive up the hills where he lives and along the ridge to a lookout point that allowed you to see the whole glacial, silt-filled basin on which Christchurch now stands. You could look both ways and see the sea on both sides of the ridge. We wound our way over to Sumner which is a resort town and beach up the coast from Christchurch. A very long sand spit has formed a sea lake which makes a great harbour for loads of small boats. When the tide is out you can walk across the end as a sand-link emerges that completely seals off the lake from the sea. We were right at the end, a bit further up the coast where the breakers make for decent surfing. On this occasion I didn’t avail myself of the opportunity. Rather we sat and had another iced coffee and watched the surfers.

Joe then took us to his home after stopping off to buy a few items for the Barbie! His eldest daughter, Amelia, phoned up to see where he was and he handed me the phone and I and then Val had a nice little chat with her. She is a smashing little girl and as bright as a button. She is five and a half years old. Her sister, Matilda, is just one and remained quite shy.

Rachael did wonders preparing the nosh for the Barbie and it made a thoroughly splendid meal. As Joe fancied a couple of drinks, Rachael very kindly stayed tea total so she could drive us back to the hotel. All in all – brilliant.

When we got back to the hotel Val had to sort out all the stuff in the cases while I, err, sort of, didn’t. We wanted to leave a case at the hotel to avoid dragging a couple of big, heavy, cases around South Island. It was during this activity we realised the air-conditioning had packed in. A lad came and nearly ripped the unit of the wall before deciding he couldn’t fix it so we ended up with a big fan. We then went to bed as we needed to be up early for the start of the tour.