Days 150 - 152: Exploring Christchurch

The past couple of days I have been staying with friends of Jenna's: Emma, Heidi and Melissa, while Jenna and Rob are in Auckland.  Jenna decided that her house was too damp, boring and cold so she asked them if I could stay at their place for the weekend.  I have pretty much been taking it easy and exploring Christchurch.  I've visited the Botanic Gardens (and been running there a couple of times), the Arts Centre (a bunch of galleries and shops in a very cool old gothic building), and the Canterbury Museum, which was really interesting and very well done (plus it was free admission!)  Canterbury is the name of the region of New Zealand that Christchurch is located in.  The museum focused on the early Maori of the area and had lots of cool old artifacts, as well as information about local plants and animals, early settlers and how the town developed, Antartic exploration and Kiwi children's literature.  There was also a section called Fred & Myrtle's Paua Shell House.  This was an attraction that used to be located in the town of Bluff, the southernmost town in New Zealand.  Fred & Myrtle polished up over 1100 paua shells and attached them to the walls of their living room.  Their home was basically a display of Kiwiana - icons of kiwi culture, and kitschy knickknacks, but it became a popular tourist attraction that put Bluff on the map, and Fred and Myrtle loved all the visitors that they got.  After their deaths their "collection" was removed to the Canterbury Museum and the display space was reconstructed to look just like their house in Bluff.  Fred & Myrtle seem like they were really friendly, nice people.  I'm sad that I can't go to Bluff and meet them.

I also walked downtown to Cathedral Square and saw the cathedral.  This is the "Christ's church" for which the city is named.  It's beautiful and looks like a European gothic cathedral, although it's much newer than many of those.  Christchurch is said to be New Zealand's most English town, and many of the road and place names sound very English: Glocester St., Oxford Terrace, Worcester St., the Avon River, etc.  It was settled by many people from England and they wanted their new city to seem like what they were leaving behind.  

On weeknds there are markets around the Arts Centre, and that was fun to explore.  There were also lots of buskers and street performers out, one of which I stopped to watch because he was really funny.  Enjoy the photos of my explorations!

Here are also some photos of Jenna and Rob's place, including my room and the nifty surprise that Jenna had left in my drawer!

There's also a photo of me on the beach just behind their house.  They live in a small Kiwi cottage, called a bach (pronounced batch) that are popular to rent for holidays by the sea in the summertime.  They are like having a camp on the beach or a summer cottage, but they're not fancy, they're fairly plain and functional.  Their house is cozy, although cold at night without the fire going.  We have lots of pork to eat 'cause Rob works on a pig farm.  Mmmm...