It’s Only Just Begun

Having done all the “getting up to date” we needed to do before progressing on our trip, we were now free to explore Christchurch a bit. Although, as these things invariably happen, the weather had turned for the worst so we had to contend with rain all day long.

We’d already looked around the shopping areas in the past two days, so spent today wandering around the older parts of town. By European standards, the “older” parts of town aren’t that old (less than two hundred years old), but by Oceanic standards that’s pretty ancient.

We headed from Cathedral Square towards the Botanic Gardens. Our thoughts on this part of town is that it’s a cross between Canterbury and Worcester in England, and very nice for it. And it’s probably been intentionally designed to look exactly like these two cities, given that the area that Christchurch is in is called Canterbury and we saw a building called Worcester House!

We passed a statue to Captain Scott of Antarctic fame,

crossed a quaint bridge over a river,

and passed a couple of nicely designed older buildings

before arriving at the entrance to the Botanic Gardens. By now it had started to drizzle quite badly, so, as luck would have it, we entered the Canterbury Museum at the entrance to the gardens. It was free, it was dry, so we were there!

It really was very good. Its always a toss up going into a museum at the best of times, nevermind one that doesn’t charge an admission fee, but it kept us occupied for ages!

It had an interactive area

obviously designed for kids, with lots of buttons to press and things to turn, but when has that ever stopped us!

It had exhibitions of Chinese and Egyptian artefacts (including a mummy in the Egyptian section)

It had a really good, large section on the Antarctic, along with many old vehicles used to traverse the continent

and last, but not least, it had a Penny Farthing just ripe for an idiot to get on for a photo opportunity!

We had a really good time, and it was the sort of place we would gladly have paid an admittance fee to enter. And when we left, the rain had stopped!

We then took a gentle stroll through the Botanic Gardens. It was basically just a normal, large park but had the River Avon running around its perimeter, a couple of nice fountains, landscaped garden areas, and lots of ducks!

We walked around reflecting on our trip so far. Its hard to get our heads around the fact that things we have done so far happened so long ago. For example, we were trying to work out the last museum we had been in before today, realised it was in Melbourne, and then realised it was two months ago! We honestly don’t know where the time is going to! It’s hard enough to believe we have had three weeks in New Zealand; before this trip that would have been our joint longest holiday ever but it’s gone in a blink of the eye!

So, obviously, our thoughts are now turning to home. We have around just under seven weeks left on the trip, and it’s going to be over before we know it.

But before it is, we have the small matter of flying to the Cook Islands tomorrow (and crossing the International Date Line), followed by Tahiti, Easter Island, and most of South America. So although it feels like the end of our trip, it really has only just begun!