Tuesday 18th. Feb. Activities

Didn't get to walk around city centre as planned: Well I did say I wanted to stay flexible, but it was a serendipitous day on at least two counts.

First of all the motel informed me that what looked like a little row of shop fronts behind a small car park just a 15 minute walk down the road was in fact a Tardis like shopping mall with a much bigger car park at rear (I would estimate it to be about a 3rd. of the size of Meadowhall). Westfield have a chain of shopping malls in USA and New Zealand. That meant that I could get mobile phone sim card, car satnav, insect repellent and sunscreen quickly in one spot.
I was up and running with a New Zealand phone number in about one minute of paying for it: absolutely incredible.
SatNav cost me $150 (£75) To hire one for 35 days with the car would have been $350.

I then caught the bus down to the Museum to learn a bit about the Maori, Captain Cook and the early settlers etc.
I was surprised to find that the Maori only arrived in NZ about 700 years ago, and were in fact still in the Stone Age. That said, however, they were very skilled manufacturers of impements, canoes, and elaborate and artistic adornments and clothing.

 

Maori hunting Moa to extinction

 

I was then going to look at the Botanic Gardens adjacent to the Museum, and I thought that I would join a guided tour. The second bit of serendipity, was that a girl I took to be a guide to the gardens was in fact a private guide for her own drive to a Gondola and walk with history info, to the port of Lyttelton. I said I would join her the following day as I intended to walk into Christchurch centre, but as she had a group of German speaking Swiss for Wednesday she persuaded me to go straight away, and as I was her only client I got her undivided attention in English.
This is something I wouldn't have found on my own, and I can thoroughly recommend, as you go up to the volcanic crater rim on the outskirts of Christchurch, and walk down to Lyttelton Harbour in the crater itself. You then drive back to Christchurch by tunnel (completely unaffected by the Earthquake) through the crater rim.

Nicole Wiedemann is a German girl living in NZ for 5 years, and has her own website.

www.ecowalks.co.nz