Christchurch

We reluctantly left the Waipara area, despite there being other vineyards we had yet to visit, and we headed for Christchurch. Naturally we had a couple of stops along the way.

The first was to Waikuku Beach. The day was overcast and pretty windy, so the surf was up, and the kite surfers were out. Although the surf lifeguards were on patrol, no-one was game enough to go surfing. It was cold enough that I had a wind breaker on!

The dogs enjoyed the walk though, and feeling the sand on their paws. We continued on, and our next stop was a place called Kairaki, at the mouth of the Waimakariri river. This was a really charming place, and very popular with fishermen. We saw someone land a good sized kahawai, but those we spoke to were hoping for a salmon. None of those were landed in the time we were there.

It was disappointing to see the amount of rubbish on the beach. This was despite there being lots of bins around. Not only that, the council had provided built in bait boards, and fishermen seemed to be OK with leaving herring heads lying around. They could have at least thrown in in the rubbish, or in the river as fish food.

Our first night was at a NZMCA Park called the Willows, outside of Christchurch, and there we caught up with old friends Gayle and Allan. We had met them in Gisborne 4 years ago when we were tripping around the area and had a very sick little dog. we had seen them periodically since, so it was nice to catch up again. They have a Dethleffs Trend now.

The next day we headed for my cousin Sharon and Chris’s house in Christchurch, after taking the dogs for a forest walk next to the camp. It was supposed to be a 4km loop track but somehow we lost the loop and in fact just got lost. Fortunately we found our way back to camp eventually but I am sure we did at least an extra kilometre in the process.

Sharon and Chris live close to the Christchurch area and have an ideal parking place for the van. They were pretty keen on the boys being there as they used to have a miniature schnauzer called Zac a couple of years ago. I have not had a lot to do with Sharon over the years, probably due to distance, so it was wonderful getting to know them a bit more. Uncle Ron also joined us for meals and he is looking really well.

Ron was kind enough to babysit the dogs the next day while we headed out to Orana Park. I had not been there before and we wanted to experience the lion encounter. It was really memorable. We were loaded into a crate on the back of a truck with keepers who had meat and big bones. The lions climbed all over the crate so we got really close and personal. A bit too personal in fact because I got lion slobber down the front of my shirt!

What wonderful animals they were though. So big and powerful! Apparently the male lions here at Orana are bigger than they would be in the wild, but they had no manes because they had to be neutered early on to prevent in-breeding.

The next stop was to the giraffes and we had the opportunity to get up close to them as well, and to feed them. Again, they are magnifient beautiful animals.

We had a look at meerkats, zebra, bison and yaks and monkeys from a distance but decided to head back as the heat was unbearable – over 36 degrees.

The dogs were evidently very comfortable with Ron and we had another lovely meal with him and Sharon and Chris.

The next morning we had a quick explore of the central city before heading inland. We wanted to see the progress of the re-build but got a bit side tracked. We found ourselves parked near the old university buildings so headed in there for a look. I had not been there before except to the retail shops in one little bit of it, but it warranted more attention than that. The building itself is exquisite, despite some of it still being under repair.

The old lecture hall in particular was really something.

Everywhere we looked we were wowed by the building.

Across the road was the Botanic Gardens, and although we did not have enough time to explore the whole park, we saw a little bit.

Another whistle stop tour was the Museum, which we were very impressed with.  We loved the example of Fred and Myrtle’s front room of their Paua House. The short movie on the subject was good too. Apparently they had over 1 million visitors to their house when it was at Bluff.

It would have been very easy to spend more time in Christchurch as we missed the Air Force Museum  and more exploration of the central city, but it was time to move on. Next stop the Rakaia Gorge.