The countryside is beautiful here, very green and hilly with gorgeous views from the mountains down to the ocean.
Despite the hills being so steep the land is used for farming sheep, hills almost too steep to walk up were all filled with sheep and fenced into paddocks.
Once we arrived at Christchurch we used the hop on hop off trams for the day. They were all old originals, beautifully restored with very friendly, funny drivers who really were very welcoming. It was by far the best hop on hop off service we’ve ever used.
This street had the houses on both sides all painted in mirror image of each other, a little Spanish influenced street that was turned into a mall. It was empty when we got out to look around and I was promptly bailed up by a very stoned guy, with dreadlocks down to his waist telling me how he slept through the Christchurch earthquake because he was stoned, until the cops came to see if he was OK- I could sense a sob story coming up and a request for money when fortunately the next tram stopped so we jumped back on and left him to hit up some other poor tourist.
There was anAntartic exhibition on as the staff had just returned from wintering over. The dogs were all curled up sleeping in the cold.
Lots of beautiful old buildings in the area are being repaired.
The museum was excellent, another one that was free and we could have spent much more time there. They had some beautiful old clothing on display with such fine embroidery – would love to have had time to see more.
This was the largest non flight bird, now extinct.
More embroidery ( running out of time!)
The old cathedral in the city is going to be restored, expected to take at least 10 years.
