Christchurch Saturday 2.2.08

Christchurch is a wonderful city. The second largest city in NZ, it is described as the most "English" and it is easy to see by its low-slung skyline that it is very different from the North Island big cities. We do the fruit and bars breaky thing in our room, Mary cranks out the laundry with minimal help and we head to town center to return the rental car. We patrol most of the retail area and spend some time in NOOD (New Objects of Desire) which is one of the concepts from a hot new retail entrepreneur in NZ. The store is electronics, kitchen stuff, leather goods, furniture, everything edgy and unfamiliar. We can understand the appeal.

We find the bar zone and the Tram mall and Cathedral Square and begin to have a pretty good feel for the city. There are Irish dancers, chess matches and a flea market going on in Cathedral Square that we saunter through on our way back towards the park for lunch. We stop at Ferment for a burger (with bacon, cheese, fried egg, beets, lettuce, tomato and mayo), fries, and a beer.

After lunch we happen upon the arts area around Worcester Street and there is an arts and crafts fair in full swing. Most of the emphasis is on Maori inspired paintings and jewelry with a sprinkling of soaps and home canned products. There is a jazzy group playing at one end as a musical backdrop. John sees the bratwurst stand with fried onions and sauerkraut and figures he could have skipped the burger and beer. Moving a little farther towards the park we pass the theater (The Producers) and find a courtyard where a Maori kid band, Tabu-Tabu, is performing. This really is shades of Hannah Montana with tons of screaming little kids who know the words to the songs. Most of the audience is Maori so that may have something to do with it. There is a Maori TV station here with local programming in the native language so many of the kids are probably catching these little stars at home. Interestingly enough one of the features on Maori TV is the NZ Breakers Basketball Team games starring Rick Rickert, formerly of the University of Minnesota.

We head back into the park through the botanical gardens that are in full bloom. There is a huge tree on one side of the path with a name tag on it, and when we check it out it says the scientific name is Sequoia something, but the common name is "big tree." No kidding. Our goal is the west bridge over the Avon River (English?) and we find that is our entré into the bowl and croquet pitches. First there are ten grass tennis courts, each as manicured as a top-notch putting green with a match on each. Then we find the bowls pitch manicured slightly better than the tennis courts and we watch some 80-somethings in a heated match. Then we move to the croquet lawn and lo and behold, the world croquet championships are taking place here and now. Unfortunately the early afternoon matches are just wrapping up and the next ones won’t start until later so we watch some of the big hitters working on their games. We check the line-ups and they really are from all over the world. Who knew?

We complete the walk across the park to our hotel so we can make a few phone calls and finish packing. The front desk guy recommended a couple restaurants nearby for dinner and we select Thai Orchid. It looks deserted when we approach but there are a few tables going inside. By the time we order the place is packed with locals so we decide it might be OK after all. We have an order of springrolls and John orders the green curry with chicken and Mary has the "64" which is some sort of chicken and mushroom stir fry and a double order of rice. All excellent. A little toddy with Kerri in the hotel bar to say goodbye to New Zealand, set the alarms for 3:00 AM and early to bed.

Today’s local headline: $250 million hole in the ground NZ Weekend Herald (A municipal Auckland construction project gone awry.

Christchurch/Lyttleton Friday 2.1.08

Airline reservations for Sunday, check. Car rental return verified, check. Guest laundry located, check. We are all set to get on with our day so it is the ever-popular yogurt bar and a little fruit for breakfast and we’re off to Lyttleton.

Lyttleton is actually the port for this part of the world, and if you saw the movie “8-Below” when the folks are looking for an Antarctic boat in a bar in Christchurch, it is probably in Lyttleton. (Mary of course says the bar was probably in Toronto where they were filming, but I insist that it would be a long trip from Toronto to Antarctica.) It is a hard-working port with ships being loaded and unloaded and piles of containers and acres of logs stacked up waiting to be moved out. This is the seagoing access point for this side of Antarctica and for a great deal of money you can hop a ship and visit a new continent. Antarctica, check.

We drive out around the harbor with great views back to the land side. We have a choice to make a turn left to Akaroa or right back to Christchurch and (in spite of the Coach’s discouraging words) we turn left to Akaroa. The sign says it is 59km (which is about 37 miles) so figure an easy 45 minute drive followed by lunch. About an hour and a quarter later with the low gas light on, we are on top of a mountain and we can finally see Akaroa on the ocean below us.

Akaroa is the first European settled city on the South Island where the French had landed in order to claim New Zealand for the Homeland. Unfortunately they found out that the treaty of Waitangi had been signed five days before and there were Union Jacks being planted all over both islands. If only they hadn’t stopped for dinner. The town still maintains some French influence in architectural style and has a quaint harborside business district. We grab lunch at Ma Maisson on the water (Mary the prawn salad and John the Spiced chicken sandwich) and if there is a common fault among Kiwi chefs, it is not knowing when a dish is done. The Italians are noted for their simplicity of ingredients and style and the Kiwis would be at the other end of the spectrum. If five ingredients are good, wouldn’t eight be better?

We now know that it is a bit longer drive back to Christchurch than we had imagined and we still want to head to the Antarctic Center near the airport. Fortunately we breeze through town in spite of some Friday rush hour traffic and get to the center about 4:15. It is 34-degrees C (about 93F) so we are very happy to get into the air-conditioned display.

This is one of the top attractions in NZ and one would expect it to be equally popular among locals and tourists alike. They have great exhibits detailing the history of the exploration of the south pole, recreations of the existing buildings at the international base, a real live blue penguin swimming and breeding area, and many other animal, vegetable and mineral displays. They do the south pole experience where they put you in a cold room with a coat and boots and crank up the wind to freezing conditions. It is 17.8 degrees F and the wind is blowing at 25 mph for a wind chill of two below. The fellows were anxious to see how impressed we were with the conditions when we came back out and we told them it was a warm winter day back home. They quickly moved on to the next people. The Antarctic Center is located at the Christchurch airport because this really is the international access point for the base on the ice. There is a huge US facility (United States Antarctic Program - Operation Deep Freeze) across the road on airport grounds and the C130s they use for travel back and forth are parked there.

When we come back out at 6:15 the temp has dropped 27 degrees F and the wind is roaring out of the south (meaning that it’s cold). We hustle back to the hotel and decide to eat in tonight. The restaurant is bright and noisy so we opt for the bar. Mary gets a fish and chips and our bartender Kerri lets John order the roast of the day (leg of lamb with about 10 different vegetables) from the dining room menu. The bar is dark and quiet and we chill out inside while it starts to rain outside. Plenty of chores to do tomorrow, so off to bed.

Today’s local headline: Man Fakes Death Christchurch Weekend Press (Wife collects $1.2 million life insurance)

Winding Down NZ Thursday 1.31.08

There are some mixed emotions today as we pack up in Lake Tekapo to head for our final Kiwi destination. We still have 3 nights in Christchurch but we will have any activities interspersed with laundry, airline details, rental car stuff and the final packing process so it seems like the end of book one. We get a slow start nibbling on some fruit and yogurt bars, and then drive about a block to check out the church of the Good Shepherd and the monument to the other shepherd, the border collie. We elbow our way through 2 buses of Japanese tourists who are dressed for the prom so we can snap a photo of a bronze dog. Actually the little church is very impressive with a glass wall behind the altar that looks our over the lake to the mountains. No chance for daydreaming during the sermon here.

It is an easy drive through lowlands surrounded by the mountains once again but there is a little haze this morning so we don’t have the same pop to the view. Geraldine is our destination for lunch and we read somewhere that there is a great little café in the middle of town but we don’t have a name. We walk the length of town (3 blocks) and check out the possibilities and settle on a place called "Plums." Good choice. Mary has her first NZ pie, a nifty little chicken, mushroom and brie number and John has the Turkey Ploughman which turns out to be roast chicken with lots of fruit and great fries. If this isn’t the right place it has to be a close second. We walk around after lunch and find a bakery/café combination that is loaded with tourists from 3 buses parked out front but we remain happy with our choice. Coach told us to head north from Geraldine on the scenic inland route and we do, continuing through very scenic river valleys with Southern Alps to our left.

We get to our hotel in Christchurch late afternoon and once again the Princess of the map gets us through the weaving streets error free. The hotel is on the west side of Hagley Park, a 400 acre multi-use monster right in the center of town. The town center is straight across the park from us and we take one of the jogging paths to get the mile into town center for dinner. We walk through golfers, bikers, joggers, and soccer players, a few very happy dogs, and a few old duffers like ourselves out for a nice evening stroll.

We have a list of about 6 restaurants that were recommended from one source or another and we see two of them right away. We opt for Barcelona with an outdoor patio on the sidewalk on a street known as the "strip" because it is lined with bars and cafes. Mary gets a wild mushroom linguini thing and John has the Groper once again on a hazelnut risotto with crayfish emulsion. We watched the city scene as we sipped a little Shiraz and it was almost as nice as last night.
The hotel has a shuttle and we hustled to Cathedral Square to catch it. It arrives right on time and the driver tells us that we are lucky because without a booking he never would have stopped but he just thought he would drive by. As our friends Dave and Mary would say in code "SFL" where the "S" and "L" stand for "so lucky." Feel free to provide your own "F." ("We like fantastically.")

We have a nightcap at the bar and chat a bit with Irwin the bartender, a pleasant fellow from Singapore who is married to a Kiwi. He is off on holiday tomorrow with his wife and three little ones so we compare notes and we give him the details on the secret penguins in Moeraki. He is very familiar with the Singapore American School where our friend Patti from Crosslake taught for two years. Small world. Off to bed. Two NZ Days to go.