On to Christchurch, NZ

View of City of Christchurch from hotel

Boarding the Jet for the flight to Christchurch

Yesterday morning, after a buffet breakfast at the Peppers, we were again off to the Queenstown Airport. Boarding another New Zealand Air jet we took the 45 minute flight to Christchurch, also on South Island.

There, we took our time getting through the airport, actually daring to purchase a few souvenirs. Then we picked up a rental car, for which we had to pass a short Drivers test at the rental car desk.  We passed (lucky, or our trip could have ended today). We left the terminal during torential downpour of rain, with zero rental personnel to give clues on how the car operated. Miraculously we figured out where the GPS plugged in, and how to generally run stuff ; i.e., what buttons to poke &/or flip. Whew!

New Zealanders, like Brits, drive on the left side of the road. I quickly I lost my jitters on discovering Kiwi roads are as modern as those in California. Wide roads, which unlike Scotland or Ireland have no ancient stone curbs, short walls or non-existent shoulders to collide with. Hurrah!

Aw... I dug in before I remembered a photo might be nice.

It wasn't too late in the day when we arrived at our Christchurch hotel, but it was still pouring and we were not in the mood for tramping about during a flood. We joked & reckoned our main event of the day would be dinner.  Damned if we weren't correct.

If you care, din-din was Coffee Glazed Venison with Juniper Berry Crust, Orange & Kumara Brioche Pudding with Red Currant Jus, and every extra side dish one it occurred to us to order. In our defense, this was our big event to the day.

 The following morning, there's a mercy, the rains had ceased. We only had to waltz next door from our hotel to a shop strewn plaza. There we bought tickets for a tram tour of Christchurch - £23 NZ each.

1921 Tram entering the greenhouse-ish plaza

Ila enjoying her tram ride

 

The conductor was our driver and our tour guide. He told us all about the tram, which was a sea of wood on the inside. The tram had a cute trick - when reversing direction, you only had to stand and flip your seat back to face in the opposite direction. You also could face seats so you faced your companions or else kept them to your back. Handy for shunning the underclasses!


First up on the tram tour was the Angelican Christchurch Cathedral, pretty much taken out by New Zealand's 2011 earthquake. The cathedral's towering spire, that stood alongside the main body of the cathedral is no more. I understand the church remains unrepaired as the locals fuss over whether it would better to repair or just replace the whole shebang. The fight has gone on since 2012 or so, so stay tuned.

The earthquake damaged Angelican Cathedral

Silver Gulls

The Christchurch downtown appeared to me much like any other downtown in a large city. That was just as well, for I had my eye out for birds. The most interesting I saw were these snooty, ikle gulls with flashy red galoshes and stylishly matching red bills.

Combo: bird and city scenery

This was my umpteenth time riding on a 'on off' tram or bus in some 'exotic-to-me' city. I love the on off concept. we used it to get off a block or so from the Canterbury Museum.

Canterbury Museum

The Canterbury Museum is a combo museum, containing natural history, cultural history, botany, and everything else a mind might wish to absorb. The study of New Zealand wildlife, such as the giant Moa birds held my attention.

The Maori hunted the Moas into extinction, shockingly they didn't learn to do so from Europeans

Maori art work and on right, an ancient Maori canoe

The museum also had historical artifacts on non-native New Zealanders as well, which I found surprising. There was a little town set up with streets and stores, that could be entered and examined.

An old fashioned New Zealand town set up in the Museum

Me, being me, I was most interested in the little toy store

Loved the teeny wienie china tea sets

The fetching little horses

And the huge doll house, admired by the little girl & toy shop clerk

I hunted around the museum until I found what I was most looking forward to - in a creepy sort of way - the typical museum 'hall of dead & stuffed' animals, in this case, it was stuffed birds.

Hall of Birds - devoid of others, save for 'moi'

Still hoping to see a live penguin sometime during this trip

The ceiling of the hall of birds, features a gigantic artistic x-ray of a penguin

 The main display at Canterbury Museum just now is 'Arctic Voices' about life at the northern pole.

Looking down on the entire 'Arctic Voices' panorama

Faces of the Arctic

Little quiz - on the right -  I took, on Arctic wildlife

More Arctic wildlife - Polar Bear

After our leisurely tour of the museum, and a little whirl around the museum gift shop, I told Ila I had to do a little birding in Hagley Park which the museum sits in.

Fountain in Hagley Park, adjacent to Canterbury Museum

Song Thrush

Rather surprisingly, most of the birds I spotted there - and there weren't at this time of day, too many, were European species.

I was tickled to find a European Blackbird that had white feathers on its normally black head - partially albino I think.

partially albino European Blackbird

Can't say I was shocked that the birds in the park were all imported exotics, but oh well, I don't see Blackbirds or Song Thrushes every year. We enjoyed the tram ride back to the greenhouse plaza. There we went to a Chinese restaurant and enjoyed a simple luncheon.

Pukekos

Next we were in our rental and headed to Kaikoura. You know me - the most interesting sight along the route was pastures that held horses, cattle - and of course sheep. What caught my eye though were big flocks of Pukekos (New Zealand Swamphens). Hope I will see them again where there is a shoulder to park on so I can stop and take pictures.





Tonight we checked into our hotel and went out for a short walking tour of Kaikoura; a small town. We visited a cute little shop, chock full of local wares, where I bought a pair of merino/possum fingerless gloves. Yes, you read that right,  possum!  Marsupial Possums, originally

Super soft fingerless sheep/possum mitts

 imported from Australia are a major threat to native New Zealand birds. The possums are actively hunted and for interest (I suppose) possum fur is mixed with the merino sheep's wool for an interesting yarn. LOVE my merino sheep/possum mitts - all warm and soft as butter.
Suspect cute warm mitts will come in handy when I move up to Washington state.