After a brief domestic flight from Auckland (North Island) to Christchurch, our visit really started. First interesting fact: there is no security on domestic New Zealand flights. Nice, but a bit disconcerting. We spent two days here at the George Hotel on our own before meeting the rest of the Wilderness Travel group that we would spending the remaining 17 days with.
Christchurch is the third largest city in the country, dating from around 1850. It began life as a Church of England settlement (hence the name). The town is filled with lots of Victorian buildings and large amounts of green space. The Cathedral in downtown, has a recently-remodeled square in front and lots of stairs to climb. It is an active anclican church, and ver well cared for. The old Canterbury University, next to the wonderful and extensive Botanic Gardens was probably our favorite place. It is now the home of the Christchurch Arts Center which houses theater, dance, galleries, and artisans in 40 or so shops. There are also coffee shops and internet cafes. We also visited the Canterbury Museum, which was very nice and we got lucky enough to a wonderful knowledgable and entertaining guide.
On our third day we moved to The Grange Bed and Breakfast, and met up with our traveling companions. We had a brief orientation meeting, and then a nice dinner at Annie's Wine Bar. The food in New Zealand turned out to be far better than the "meat and potatoes" menu we had been led to believe was typical. Dinner was a huge success, and the group got on well together right from the start. Perhaps it was the wine.
Return to New Zealand