Punting on the Avon River

Gayle and I had tickets today to go punting.  A punt is a flat-bottomed boat with a square cut bow.  A “punter” stands on the back part and navigates the river with a long pole.  A punt can navigate shallow water, which is exactly what the Avon River is in Christchurch.  It is named the Avon River by European settler, James Deans to honor his family heritage in Scotland.  It was originally named by the Maori people as Otakaro meaning “place of play”.  

Gayle read the FAQs on the punting website last night.  She read that the seats are so low it is like sitting on the floor.  “If you cannot get down and up from the floor without help you should not go punting”, it said. I fell asleep knowing that I would not be able to go punting.  Gayle really encouraged me to go anyway promising to help me up and down.  I even practiced squatting and getting back up this morning.  It wasn’t pretty.  

Before we headed out to the Antigua Boating Sheds to catch our punt, we enjoyed breakfast with flat whites (my new favorite coffee choice).  

When we checked in for punting I shared my worry about getting down so low and back up.  They put in a taller seat they called the throne.  Have I mentioned what a kind, gracious and civil country this is?  While we waited for our “throne” to be installed we watched one of the workers feed the black ducks (scaups).

Our punter was John.

Lucky us because he was a blast.

For a half hour we floated down the river, passed beautiful ducks…

…under the weeping willow that promises you luck if you touch its leaves…

…and made room for other people punting on the Avon River.

With a feeling of zen, we bid farewell to the best punter in Christchurch.

We headed over to the Christchurch Botanical Gardens which is close to the punting dock.  This huge garden is free to the public.  Have I mentioned how civil and public minded they are here?  Free botanical gardens, who knew that was possible?  Their website says you can take a tour of the garden on a small tram. So we headed over and enjoyed the beauty around us as we looked for the garden tram  I ducked under the branches of this tree to see if it was one or two trees.

It is one tree.  

Gayle’s happy place is any garden.  She was loving every second of the place.  Here she is sitting down on her cane stool waiting for the Peacock fountain to show off….as peacock’s are known to do.

It didn’t disappoint.  

When we got to the place where we could meet the garden tram we learned that the next available spot would be at 1:30 p.m.  It was only 10:30 a.m.  So we headed off in search of a tram stop.  We have an all day pass for the tram that makes 18 stops around the city.  (I could call it a trolley but I got corrected by the locals everytime I referred to it as a trolley).  We found stop 13 and realized that we were right next to the Arts Centre, which used to be the campus of the University of Canterbury.  The university is now in the suburbs and their neo-Gothic buildings host art galleries, performances, movies, restaurants and cafes.  We decided to step inside to the quad in search of the Great Hall which boasts a 4,000 piece stained glass window.  This is the clock tower.

In this photo you can see a piece of art suspended so that it appears to be floating on its own.  There is a large screen below it because they regularly show outdoor movies here.  

Unfortunately the Great Hall was closed for maintenance.  We wandered back to stop 13 and realized we had been sitting directly in front of the Great Hall stained glass window.  It is not very stunning from this side.

The trams operate in the city center (CBD) every day until 6 p.m.  Every tram we rode today was packed.  It is apparent that they are currently having a student holiday.  We got off at stop 7, where the bronze corgis are.  They were installed to coincide with Queen Elizabeth’s 50th jubilee. 

We walked past the new stadium that seats 30,000.  It will open to the public this month.  I think it will be on the day we have tickets for rugby here.  The new stadium was needed because of damage to the old stadium during the earthquake of 2011.  On the tram we learned that 80% of the buildings in the CBD were damaged or destroyed by the earthquake. 

We were on an our way to see the Cardboard Cathedral, as it is nicknamed here.  It is where the members of the Christchurch Cathedral have been worshipping because the Anglican Cathedral in the CBD was destroyed by the earthquake.  “The whole cathedral cracked like a plate” as it is described in the Cathedral brochure we were handed.  The cathedral seems to be taking longer to rebuild than all other building recoveries.  A few weeks after the earthquake, one of the Cathedral staff saw an article in a design magazine about a Japanese “emergency architect” named Shigeru Ban, who designed a cardboard church to replace one that had been damaged during the Kobe earthquake.  Ban offered to design them a transitional church and two years later it was finished.  

It is made of cardboard, wood and steel. The large tubes that point your eye upward or made of cardboard.  The building meets the current New Zealand earthquake code by 130%.  It seats 700 people.  You can see the cardboard construction most clearly in the pulpit.

The stained glass looking windows at the back of the sanctuary are actually made using a glass printing technology.

We headed on our way and found another tram stop.  We were headed to Regent Street, which promised an array of places to eat.  We settled on Thai food and had a delicious lunch.  Not only has Gayle become a fan of Pad Thai she now knows that she likes a good mango lassi.

After lunch we hopped (actually I slowly pulled myself) onto another tram to head back to our hotel.  This driver had to make two unexpected stops:  once to make sure he could get the tram past a poorly parked car and another time to move a Lime scooter out of the path of the tram.  Stop 8 is directly across the street from our hotel.  We were ready for a rest.

When we roused ourselves and finished watching the evening news, I gave Gayle three options for dinner:  C1Espresso where your order and your food and it is delivered to you through a pneumatic tube;  the Indian restaurant a half block from our hotel; or I walk to the grocery store around the corner and get a baguette and real butter.  I was pretty sure I knew which one she would choose and she did not disappoint.  I walked around the corner to the grocery store for the baguette and butter.  It was when we were traveling in France together that Gayle realized that a dinner of a baguette and butter made her smile.   I do enjoy visiting a grocery store when I travel to a different country.

We spent the rest the evening making plans to pick up a car rental and drive out the Banks Peninsula to Akaroa.   

Exploring Christchurch

We woke up to gray skies this morning.  Gayle needed to rest her back today.  So after having soft-boiled eggs and soldiers in the hotel cafe, I headed out to see what I could find.  Christchurch seems colorful and by that I mean that there are murals and street art everywhere.

I passed the Christchurch Cathedral, which was damaged heavily in the earthquake of 2011. It is an historic building in Christchurch, completed in 1904.  It survived many earthquakes but the one in 2011 severely damaged it.  A transitional cathedral was created out of cardboard and the congregation is worshipping there until the repairs can be made on their original structure.  I hope that Gayle and I can visit the Cardboard Cathedral tomorrow.

As I traveled through the city I saw so much scaffolding and this broken staircase leading to nowhere.

Christchurch is an absolutely beautiful city.  The architecture is unique.  This is their convention center.

I crossed the Avon River.

I found myself walking along streets blocked off for cars.  I asked a woman walking by, who had two medals around her neck, what was happening today.  She told me there was a marathon and a half-marathon happening.  

My first stop of the day was Quake City.  It is a special exhibition to tell the story of the earthquakes that have plagued this area, especially the one in 2011 that caused so much damage and took so many lives.  The place is filled with photos of the devastation.

There was a video from a street camera that captured the moment the earthquake hit.  There were videos of interviews with people who lost loved ones or worked as rescue workers.  I learned about liquefaction. When air is pumped through sand it causes the particles to separate.  Solid grand becomes liquid.  There were amazing photos of homes and trees sunk half deep into the ground.  I was moved by the descriptions of how the people of New Zealand and other countries worked together to help with the rescue.  I was glad to see that the United States participated in the rescue and recovery.  The resilience of the people of Christchurch was evident in the exhibition.

I didn’t hang around too long at Quake City because I had purchased a timed ticket for the International Antarctic Centre.  But when I pulled up my Uber app I realized I was standing in the middle of the marathon route and I would need to hoof it to a street that was open to cars.  It reminded me of the time Gayle were in Capetown, South Africa.  We had scheduled a tour and our guide couldn’t get to us because of a marathon running in front of our hotel.  Seriously, how often does a city host a marathon?  How do I manage to be there when they do?

Christchurch is one of five cities that is a gateway to Antarctica.  The Centre is located on the site of the International Antarctic Progamme, which is located on the Christchurch airport campus.  Several countries have bases on Antarctica to further scientific research.  New Zealand has Scott Base.  The center I visited provides a fun, educational experience to help people understand what life is like there; what animals live there; and what they are learning there.  It is Sunday here and the place was hopping with families.

My first stop was to go into the room that helps simulate just how cold it is in Antarctica.  We were given heavy parkas and covers for our shoes.  The room was 17 degrees Fahrenheit when I entered.  When a simulated storm began the temperature dropped steadily to negative degrees.  I exited before I froze.

I chose to visit this center because it promised blue penguins.  I got to see several through a small window into a dark cubby hole.  But it was so dark I couldn’t tell that they were blue. There is a large viewing area that affords you the opportunity to see the penguins swim in a large pool.  But alas, none of them came out to play.  So I headed for the 4D theater experience.  We wore 3D glasses and were told that it was 4D because our chairs would move.  They did.  What they didn’t tell us was that we would be splashed with water and pelted with wind.  I was glad I had a raincoat on!

My final experience was a ride on a Hagglund through an obstacle course.  A Hagglund is an all-terrain, amphibious vehicle designed for extreme conditions.  It can traverse deep snow, ice, mud….you name it.  It looks like this…

I took my seat and strapped in.  

We crossed chasms; went up steep hills; crossed an area that was supposed to simulate driving through deep snow; and inched along the side of a hill (which I found to be the most frightening).  I tried to take a video of the experience but mostly shot the ceiling and the floor of the vehicle.

I called an Uber and headed back to the hotel to rest and get ready for the “gourmet” meal on a tram through the heart of Christchurch that we had booked.  At 5 p.m. we were waiting in the designated spot as the tram pulled up.

We were expertly loaded on and served our welcoming drink.

We ate a lovely dinner while the tram went round and round the downtown area.  We passed the same landmarks multiple times.  Dinner began with avocado mousse and a mango & peach salsa served on toast.  It was very good.  I was excited for what came next.  Gayle ordered the Akaroa salmon and pronounced it delicious.  I had the zucchini and pumpkin cannelloni and wished I liked salmon.  For dessert Gayle had a magnificent dish.  It was shaped like a pear but it was mousse with poached pear pieces inside a delicious outer crust.  I had a New Zealand cheese plate I would have thought was great had I not seen and tasted Gayle’s dessert!  The chef worked out of the small kitchen in the center of the trolley with two wait staff meeting our every need.

The couple across from us struck up a conversation.  They moved to Christchurch a year ago and our making it their mission to enjoy what this city has to offer.  They were lovely, as is everyone we have met in this beautiful country.  After an hour and a half of driving in circles and eating good food we returned to our original stop and bid our new friends goodbye.

Christchurch

We awoke earlier than expected this morning.  This is the day we leave for Christchurch.  We got ready and headed down to the breakfast buffet.  The hotel is obviously thinning out as guests head out of town to avoid the cyclone.  We did share the breakfast buffet with the rugby team, the Gallagher Chiefs.  We will be seeing the New South Wales Waratahs play the Christchurch Crusaders later this month, if I didn’t buy the tickets from a scam website.  

We left early to head to the Rotorua airport.  We needed to return our rental car, check our bags and get through AvSec (New Zealand’s version of TSA).  Gayle and I emptied our bottles of water in the parking lot so that we could fill them again once we were through AvSec.  Checking our bags was a breeze.  There was no AvSec at this regional airport and no one cared about our water bottles.  We did not put any gas in the rental car because it is a hybrid and the gas gauge never moved off of Full.  The woman told us we should have gotten gas and we would get a bill for the gas they needed to add to the tank.  The added cost was $1.49.

We filled our water bottles and once it was time to board the plane, we were ushered onto the tarmac to climb onto our prop plane via a ramp.  It was all so chill and old school.

The flight down to Christchurch was lovely.  We tracked where we were by following the topography on Google Maps.  The sky was blue, the ocean was turquoise and the land was green.  It is hard to believe that dangerous wind and rain are headed towards New Zealand.  We arrived without any trouble and met Lucky, the woman our travel agent arranged to pick us up.

We are staying at the Muse hotel in downtown Christchurch.  We read the reviews for this hotel and laughed out loud.  People either love this hotel or it is the worst experience of their lives.  We are glad to have found a hotel in the city center area (called CBD here) at such short notice.  The Muse hotel is considered an “art hotel”.  There are large works of weird art everywhere.  The lobby is very small and to check in Gayle had to enter this red telephone booth….

…and talk to a screen with a man from India who took her credit card information and generated our room keys.  I’ll let you know if her credit card gets hacked.

My room key did not work so I had to go back to the front desk where the clerk went into the booth and requested that the man from India generate new ones.  So strange.  Our room reminds us of tiny places we have stayed in Europe and NYC.  Only one person can be moving at the room at a time.  We took time to rest before heading out in search of food.

We are a half mile from Riverside Market, which has a plethora of food stalls.  We took an Assist Uber, which means the driver should be knowledgeable and helpful for people with mobility concerns.  He made sure to drop us off as close to the market as possible.  I tipped him well!  We ordered our food and then Gayle went in search of a cocktail.  While I was waiting for our food a woman sat down in the stool beside me and said, “I am so drunk.”  She proceeded to tell me she had gone to a Spice Girls brunch and had been drinking for 4 hours.  We had a delightful conversation because all her filters were gone. When Gayle returned with her cocktail she had stories to tell about all the “friends” she made in pursuit of a drink.  I think it would be impossible for me to exaggerate how incredibly friendly and kind the people of New Zealand have been to us.  We found a comfortable place on the second floor to enjoy our food and people watch.

We walked back to our hotel.  It is very windy here but all weather predictions show the cyclone/tropical storm will miss us here.  We heard that they have just upped the threat level to Rotorua.  We are glad to be here.

Treewalk and Te Puia

I got up early this morning and headed down to our hotel lobby to get the barista to make us flat whites.  While I was down there I wondered if the large breakfast buffet was actually part of our reservation.  It is.  Silly us.  The flat whites were still necessary to help us wake up.  We did enjoy the breakfast buffet.  It wasn’t overwhelmingly delicious but the variety was marvelous and I got to enjoy a golden kiwi, slightly different from the kiwi grown in California.  

We headed for the Redwood Tree Walk and Glowworm experience.  The Redwood Tree Walk is walk through the Redwood trees 20 yards up, 7 1/2 football fields long with 28 suspension bridges.  Gayle knew she wasn’t going to be able to walk that far so she headed in the wrong direction so she could go a short distance and wait for me to come around.  This is Gayle disobeying the rules.

California Redwoods were introduced to this area in 1901.  They grow faster here in Rotorua. Only eight people are allowed on a suspension bridge at a time.  Only 20 people on the platforms in between the bridges.  

A specialist climbing team from Germany was brought in to aid in the construction of the treewalk.  The walkway is suspended from the trees using a specially designed sling that wraps around the Redwood trunks without causing harm to the trees. The slings can be easily adjusted to allow for the growth of the trees.

An artist was brought in to design hanging “lanterns” that light up the walkway at night.  It is a very popular nighttime attraction.  Since our time in Rotorua has been truncated we are not sure that we will be able to swing back by there tonight to experience the walkway at night.

Under the Redwoods the ground is covered in lush ferns.

I found the experiencing a bit intimidating….not terrifyingly so…just a bit daunting.  New Zealand currently is enjoying a two week school holiday and the place was crawling with children trying desperately not to break the rule and run on the bridges but having a hard time not doing so.  I eventually met up with Gayle and we headed off the walkway to the glowworm experience.

There are many glowworm caves in this area but most of them require you to ride a boat down some rapids in a dark cave.  Another one requires that you get down on all fours and crawl through a hole to get inside the cave.  We were not interested in either of these so we chose the easy to walk through a man made cave.  Luckily the glowworms are real.  

We had a lovely guide for just the two of us.  We watched a short information film on the life cycle of a glowworm.  They are cannibals so only about 10-13% of eggs make it to adulthood.  Those that make it are wormlike in appearance.  They glow brighter when they are hungry.  As you can see in this photo I took, some of the glowworms are brighter/hungrier than the others.

This is a close up of a couple of glowworms that have put out long string like strands to catch bugs for them to eat….like a web only in string form.

Eventually, they form a cocoon.  When they hatch they look like mosquitoes.  They have no stomachs are mouths as adult glowworms.  They have one job. The job of the male is to impregnate the female….and then die.  The job of the female is to lay her eggs…and then die.   It was an interesting tour that didn’t involve me crawling through a small hole

We realized last night that we are right around the corner from Lake Rotorua.  We can’t leave here without seeing it.  So we headed down to see it.  We found this Māori war canoe memorial.

We sat by the lake and enjoyed watching the black swans.

Being next to water is my zen place.

The wind sock next to the lake showed no current wind activity.  I wonder what it will look like on Sunday when the expected cyclone blows through this part of New Zealand.

Our guide at Hobbiton yesterday told us about a church in Rotorua with a stained glass of a Māori Jesus.  I looked it up last night and it looked like a white Jesus with traditional Māori clothing.  It didn’t have visiting hours available during the Fall months.  We did see the church in its beautiful setting on the lake.

We headed back to the room.  We have a reservation for a traditional Māori experience at 4 p.m. that lasts for 41/2 hours.  Gayle needed to rest her back and I wanted to do our laundry.  With the change in our schedule we will no longer be staying at the hotel we originally reserved in Christchurch.  At our new hotel we will not have laundry facilities at our disposal.  While Gayle rested I headed over to a nearby cafe to try out a hangi pie.  Hangi is a traditional way to cook food using heated rocks buried in a pit oven.  A hangi pie is meat or vegetables wrapped inside a phyllo like crust.  It was delicious.

We were picked up in front of our hotel and driven to Te Puia.  Gayle asked for a wheelchair for the guided tour so much of her experience was at the tail end of the tour where it was hard to hear and see.  Ian was our Māori guide.  

We toured the Māori Arts and Crafts Institute where Māori students learn the craft of woodcarving, weaving and stone & bone carving.

There is a Kiwi Conservation Centre on the site.  Kiwi are an endangered species.  We got to see a kiwi, in a darkened habitat, but we were not allowed to take any photos.  They are nocturnal and nearly blind, making them easy prey for predators.

I found the mud pools fascinating.  I wish I could add a video to this blog to give you the full impact of this bubbling caldron of mud.

The last stop on our guided tour was the Pohutu geyser.  

We asked Ian if they are afraid of a volcanic eruption.  He said they are not because they have all these steam vents which relieves the pressure.  The whole area has steam rising from it.  When we arrived at the geyser we were told that it would erupt in 15 minutes or less.  So we waited.  It was hot there.  You could sit down on the stone steps if you wanted a warm butt.

It wasn’t as spectacular as Old Faithful at Yellowstone but it was fun to watch it shoot up.

We were then loaded on a trolley and returned to the restaurant for a truly amazing buffet.  I would like to share everything I ate but I don’t relish your condemnation so I will hit the highlights.  I loved the Kanga porridge which I would suggest tasted like the creamed corn dish served at Thanksgiving.  I didn’t take any of the hangi since I had enjoyed that at lunch.  I tried the fry bread but I am not a fan.  There were also many dishes I know weren’t traditionally Maori but they were excellent:  chow mein, crème brûlée, chocolate covered crème puffs, etc.  While we savored our dinner the sunset took over the sky.   I rushed outside to get a couple photos.  This is Pohutu Geyser.

The sky above the community building was beautiful.

After dinner we were ushered to the community building for a performance of Maori culture, which began with a member of the audience being named our chief and becoming part of a ritual of accepting a peace symbol from a Maori warrior.

We all filed into the building for a demonstration of Maori music and dance. 

We were back in our room by 8 p.m. and ready for bed.  We need to be up early tomorrow to fly to Christchurch to avoid a cyclone.