Back to some travel stories . . . After spending several days in Sydney, some folks left for home and 8 of us went on to New Zealand. Having never been there and having seen little more than photos of the Milford Sound and plenty in travel books, I didn’t know what to expect. So I shot a few photos from the air. There is some haze, but what’s visible there is green. And more green. And more green. Darker green, lighter green, lakes and water. Lovely.
Christchurch isn’t exactly a huge city – a small city, I’d say. We stayed in a hotel right smack dab in the middle of town so it was easy to walk anywhere.
There was a big earthquake in Christchurch in September and it did some damage to older structures. A unique thing about New Zealand is that the island is right on top of two Tectonic plates, so the island is very prone to earthquakes. But this 2010 one was quite serious. There were no injuries, partly due to NZ’s extremely strict building codes. I remember reading about it in September, that structural damage was minimized because the country has insisted on earthquake-proof codes for both commercial buildings and homes.
In the picture above you can’t see any damage – they’d repaired what minimal problems there were, but just a few blocks away here’s what we saw:
This is an old church – Presbyterian I think – that was built long before civil engineers knew what to do to build more earthquake resistant structures. They expected to be able to repair this church, but meanwhile they have props surrounding the building to keep it from crumbling even more.
Here’s a sculpture (no, it’s not earthquake damage) in a small Christchurch park – it’s to honor and commemorate 9/11 and it’s a loose replica of some of the girders and beams from the World Trade Center, showing the one that looks similar to a Christian cross.
We criss-crossed our way all around Christchurch. It’s a quaint little city and easy to get around in. And we were quite impressed with all of their parks. Just like the Aussies, the NZlanders set aside more than ample (at least by American standards) park lands for everyone to enjoy.
Here’s another photo of an older Christchurch building with props holding it up. Holding it in place. I loved the striking phone booths there. I don’t know if it’s a national thing, or just in Christchurch, but the phone booths are somewhat similar to British ones. Cute. Red.
We’re losing phone booths here in this country. What with cell phones so readily available, one can be hard pressed to even find a phone booth here in the U.S.
Here, at right, was a sign we saw somewhere in Christchurch showing two of the indigenous birds (kiwi and uhm. . . what is that other bird?). Kiwi birds are not exactly cute. They’re flightless, though. Did you know that most larger birds in Australia and New Zealand are flightless? Because those two countries were not destroyed during the Ice Age, the animals lived through it – they are almost prehistoric and they don’t have predators. Hence their wings have, through evolution, been lost. We never saw a live kiwi while we were there, sad to say.
Here’s a little something to give you a laugh. In New Zealand no one refers to one’s derrier as buns. Instead, they’re sweet rolls or sandwiches. Our guide, Marilyn, pointed out this little cafe sign, saying that she really did, but didn’t understand it, why Americans always think it’s so funny!
Sure enough, we all laughed.
Christchurch has a very efficient rail system – considering that it’s a small city, we were all impressed.
This trolley car seems like it’s right out of the 1940’s or so, doesn’t it?
Both Australia and New Zealand have plenty of Victorian style homes. I tried to take a whole lot of suburban home photos from our different rides around cities in both countries, but all of them were blurred. This one, this cute little, narrow Victorian, was just a few blocks from downtown Christchurch. I just thought it was adorable. Not that I’d want to live in one, but this happened to be a particularly attractive Victorian.
By the time we had walked for a couple or so miles around the city and the Botanical Gardens (a post about that tomorrow or the next day), we passed this sign about Ron Mueck, a well-renowned Australian sculptor. A few of our group went to the museum to see the display. The woman you see there (a photo of the sculpture) is a Maori (pronounced mao-ree, and say it real fast). Those who went, exclaimed over the exhibit. The sculptures are very life-like and life-sized too. Amazingly life-like, apparently. Dave’s legs were really hurting him after our long walk, so we didn’t ever get back to see the exhibit.
This photo (right) is from Wikipedia, and shows one of Mueck’s most famous sculptures.
I’d think that would be eerie to be in a museum and come upon that head sculpture!
We did take a bus tour one day. I took a dozen pictures of the Christchurch skyline from the ridge we were on here. Christchurch doesn’t have any particular landmarks, to speak of. But it was so clear and pretty. That’s ocean off in the distance.
And here’s a photo of Marilyn, our wonderful guide. She was speaking there, about the building behind her – Christ’s College – Canterbury, just adjacent to the Christchurch Botanical Gardens.
We watched lots of students walking in and out – all wearing their school (required) uniforms. Much like in Britain.
I think it’s at Oxford, in England, where they’re all required to wear the black flowing robes. Am I right?
There is a stream that meanders through part of Christchurch. I don’t remember its name, but it was so lovely. Made for some good picture-taking.
I mentioned in my earlier post (while we were ON the trip) that we had some fantastic Indian food in Christchurch. It may have been the best Indian food I’ve ever had. It was that good. One of the couples from our trip went with us – they’re from the Midwest and had never had Indian food – period. It was right on Cashel Street – one of the main streets of Christchurch, with the cutest name – The Last Train to India. I had a lengthy conversation with our waiter about different dishes they made – we had butter chicken, some onion kulcha, a lamb dish, another chicken dish, some delicious pilaf rice, and I asked for a vegetable dish. He brought lentils. Now I wouldn’t ordinarily have ordered a carb billed as a “vegetable,” but when it came, what could I say? And oh, was it delicious. For me it may have been the star of the dinner. It was black lentils in a kind of brown gravy. A rich, thick, silky gravy. I asked the waiter to write down the name of this dish – he did, but now I can’t find the little snip of paper it was on. Darn! I remember he said it was a “truck stop” kind of lentil dish – nothing fancy. It was just so, so good. At the end we ordered some ice cream – I think it was coconut. Came out in a kind of log shape. It was delish too. I’d be eating at this restaurant once a week if it were in California! It’s a long flight for an Indian dinner, sadly!
Marie
said on December 17th, 2010:
Have played catch up here again today Carolyn! Have so enjoyed all the photos and the narrative . . . the food, the art, the scenery, the phone booths! What a fabulous trip you had! Hope Dave continues to recover well! Love and hugs to you both! xxoo
Thanks, Marie. My hubby is slowly healing. I still have a few more posts to do about our trip, then I’ll be back to food. There really hasn’t been all that much cooking going on in this house lately. . . carolyn t
Toffeeapple
said on December 18th, 2010:
Phew, what a lot of reading I’ve just done on this here blog! I should try to keep up to date, I truly should. You’ve written some lovely accounts of your Antipodean vacation, I’ve enjoyed each post.
I’m glad you enjoyed reading my long-winded tales! There are only a few more to go and I’ll be done with our South Pacific adventures. . . carolyn t