Up early for a quick walk on the beach at sunrise!

Another venture into Christchurch today to explore the downtown area. In 2010 and 2011 Christchurch suffered devastating earthquakes that destroyed many heritage brick and mortar buildings in the city center and killed 185 people. In the almost 13 years since the city has rebuilt a lot of the downtown with modern, earthquake resilient buildings. But there are lots of empty lots and fenced off condemned buildings that are still awaiting insurance claims to be settled before demolition.

We walked from the new central bus interchange, opened in 2015 to replace the destroyed original bus depot, towards the Botanic Garden, encircled by the Avon river.

Some sights along our walk; an optical illusion wall depicting a 19th century city block at the Riverside Market (restaurants and shops), the Bridge of Remembrance over the Avon river, built to commemorate the soldiers who served in WW1, and the tram line that encircles the main business district.

As we entered the Botanic Garden and walked along the Avon river we spotted the iconic Christchurch attraction, a punt ride on the shallow river!

Scenes on our walk through the gardens.

The Rose garden is in full bloom now, with the conservatory in the background. Inside the conservatory there is a lush tropical ambience!

We exited the Gardens into the Arts Centre, housed in the old Canterbury College campus that was built in the 1870’s. The Arts Centre moved into the space in 1978, the College having moved to a suburb about 20 years earlier. The 2011 earthquake severely damaged many of the campus buildings and they are being restored slowly but surely. The fountain at the Garden entrance faces one side of the old College campus.This side of one of the campus buildings shows the restored section on the right and the un-restored section on the left.

We had a great walk around the campus, viewing the exhibits ranging from the work of Ernest Rutherford, “Studying at Canterbury College from 1890 – 1895 Rutherford, known as the Father of Nuclear Physics won a Nobel Prize in 1908”, to the work of the stonemasons who are restoring the damaged and weatherworn stone carvings on the buildings. We had an exhausting day and enjoyed the bus ride back to the carpark and a relaxing evening at our B&B bach.

We went out to the beach to watch the sunrise at 6am this morning!

Looks like it’s going to be another beautiful day!

After breakfast we packed a lunch and drove to the Park and Ride 14km (about 8.5 miles) away and caught the bus into Christchurch to the central bus interchange. After milling around a bit trying to figure out where we wanted to go a guide stepped in and gave us directions! We decided to go different directions to visit different museums! I headed north and west to the International Antarctic Centre near the airport. Robert decided to go west and a little south to the NZ Air Force Museum. We planned to meet back at the central bus interchange in 3 hours. We both had great experiences!

The International Antarctic Centre is full of information about ‘the south pole’. Christchurch is the gateway to the Antarctic via plane or boat. It’s also the base for several international research organizations, including the United States Antarctic Program-National Science Foundation, which is literally across the street!

A lot of history, discovery, exploitation, and research information is presented. Past history includes the whaling station that closed in 1964. The research field tents are still used today!

Of course I had to visit the penguin exhibit. They have about a dozen non-releasable little blue penguins in the enclosure.

Meanwhile, Robert was at the Air Force Museum;

Near the entrance was this display.

This plane carried Queen Elizabeth II around NZ on her Royal Tour in 1953-54.

“The Bell 47G-3B-1 Sioux. The Sioux was the first helicopter to enter service with the RNZAF (Royal NZ Air Force), and featured in the American television series MASH – set during the Korean War where they were used for medical evacuation.”

We both got back to the meeting point at the scheduled time and took the bus back to the car and drove back to the B&B for a great grilled fish dinner!

We got up early this morning and took the short walk to the beach to watch the sunrise over the ocean!

Very few clouds on the horizon this morning!

It warmed up quickly as the sun rose, and very little breeze this morning!

We returned to the B&B for a great Sunday morning breakfast; eggs, fried potatoes, sliced leftover grilled lamb and toast. Yum. Robert got the bicycles from storage and we tried to fit them to our height and headed out for a ride on the local bike path along the estuary.

Tide is in on the estuary, floating the artsy boat.

Our ride was short-lived. The bikes just don’t fit us and we were getting sore shoulders and necks. We headed back to the B&B and relaxed in the sun on the front deck. It was warm enough to make use of the outdoor bathtub under the apricot tree so I filled it with hot water and bubblebath and enjoyed a good soak!

A glass of wine, some music and a view of our B&B bach, shaded by the apricot tree!

Emphasis on the ‘Beach’ part of Waikuku Beach, the small community north of Christchurch where we are staying. We finally had time and fairly decent weather to venture out the back of the B&B, over the small dunes to walk on the beach of Pegasus Bay looking east over the South Pacific Ocean.

On our walk we passed by a narrow section of the beach staffed by lifeguards with over a dozen surfers practicing on the small waves. Set back in the dune is a building, the Waikuku Beach Surf Lifesaving Club. Other than that section the long, long beach was fairly deserted.

Among the few rocks and shells at the water line we found a few thumb sized purple blobs with air balloons partially embedded in the sand.

With some research I found out to NOT touch them! They are Bluebottle Jellyfish, the southern hemisphere specie of the Portuguese Man’o’war found in the northern hemisphere. A recent influx of these stinging jellyfish have been washing up on NZ beaches and causing some problems. All the surfers were wearing wetsuits which may help them avoid the stings of the small jellyfish.

We left the beach and headed to Rangiora, the biggest, closest town for shopping. We picked up bus cards for the Christchurch metro system and outfitted Robert with some new hiking shoes and did a little exploring of the area. We returned to our B&B and grilled up a great lamb/potato/veggie/salad dinner, finished off with grilled apricots we picked fresh off our host’s tree in the garden! We walked off our dinner on the trail along the estuary out the front of the B&B.

Pampas grass grows on the dikes between the estuary and the farm paddocks.

We couldn’t tell if the tide was coming in or going out from the flow of water through the estuary.

The small boat seems to be a piece of artwork moored in the tidal flat. A signboard indicates that this estuary is home to a diversity of shorebirds! We’ll have to be on the lookout!

We woke to rain, rain, rain, cool and rainy. But we had to provision! Our host told us about the local farmer’s market in a nearby town and we figured that if the farmers show up, we might as well too. No pictures today, but check out their website. Just imagine in all the pictures about half of the visitors, rain jackets, umbrellas and rain, rain, rain!

Ohoka Farmers Market