Christchurch

Hello all-

Today, our last day in NZ was, as they say, "mostly fine"! We started the day with a Starbucks coffee.  That was great as most of the cafes here make a coffee that is basically expresso (a Long Black) so we switched to a Flat White (which is more tolerable) but Jan especially does not like coffee with milk.  The Flat White when made right, comes out with a beautiful design of the New Zealand fern on the top which is made with steamed milk.  We appreciate it when it is well done.  It is an form of art. Anyway from there we headed to the "i site" which is equivalent to our visitor's centers.  We picked up a walking guide of the city and booked a punting trip for the afternoon.  Punting is very popular in Christchurch.  Since the Avon River runs through the city, they have boats that take folks on the river and the guy in the back punts his way down the river.  It is very similar to the boats one sees of Venice.  Anyway, on our walking tour, we saw many of the old sites of the city,  many that had scaffolding and supports-evidence of structural damage from the earthquake in September.  At 11:00, we went on a free tour of the Christchurch Cathedral.  It was very interesting to hear the why and how of building a cathedral in New Zealand when all other cathedrals are located in Europe.  Onward with more of our walking tour-again finding that some of the stops were closed due to the city council stating that the facility was not safe to have folks enter them.  We relaxed for a while in the beautiful, warm sunshine before going on our punting event, which was very relaxing, too.  The river is very clean so we could see eel, trout, and lots of ducks.  We looked at the boutique shops at the Art Centre (converted buildings from the old College of Canterbury)  A little bit of shopping for souveniers ended our day and now we have to go in and pack up our suitcases for our trip home. 

Thanks to all for tuning into our blog.  We hope you have enjoyed reading this as much as we have enjoyed telling of our adventures.  See you all soon!