NZ Trip: Christchurch, New Zealand

CHRISTCHURCH – Days 1 to 3

Our journey began on Friday 12 May 2023. Lots of last minute packing, getting cleaning and tidying and things done around the house, and lots of waiting around! You see, our flight was delayed several times! We decided to leave home for the airport later than planned, but we’d done everything and were ready, so lots of sitting around at home and then once at the airport, where the flight was delayed again, more sitting around at the airport.  We were originally meant to land at Christchurch around 12:05 am NZ time (they’re 2 hours ahead of us here) but we ended up landing there around 3:30am NZ time! We didn’t get to our accommodation until around 4:00am’ish and to bed later than that!

So we’ll call Saturday 13 May our Day 1. We were pretty darn tired on Day 1 but super excited. Our accommodation was fabulous. We had a modern and clean room with everything you’d need and the bed was super comfy which is always a good thing. The shower was fabulous too! We stayed at The Parque, a boutique hotel located in a beautiful street and only a short walk to the city centre (see photo above and within gallery under Day 1). It was also very close to cafes and restaurants and convenience stores, etc. Our travel agent selected this accommodation for a couple of reasons 1) it had 24 hr check-in which is what we needed due to our flight arrival time, and 2) it was close to most things and we needed that too because at this point we had no rental car. It also had a tiny kitchenette – a microwave, tea and coffee making facilities, a small fridge, and a little table with two chairs for us to eat at – which was helpful because we were staying there for three nights and not likely to want to eat out every night. Admittedly though – the first night didn’t count considering the hour we arrived!

How does 24 hr check-in work I hear you ask? Well, there is no reception at The Parque. On the day of our arrival we were sent a code. We then entered this code into a keypad at the front entrance to get in when we arrived. It also gave us access to our room. Obviously, just access to those two areas – entry to the building and to our room – for the duration of our stay.

SATURDAY 13 MAY – DAY 1

After such a late night or should I say ‘early morning’ to bed, it was a slow start today. We found a nearby cafe where we had ‘brunch’. Then we went for a walk towards the city centre to explore. We came upon ‘Quake City‘ which was on our to do list for Christchurch so decided to do it then and there! Quake City is an exhibition of displays and stories from when the earthquake shook Christchurch and Canterbury more than a decade ago. You can also learn about the science behind earthquakes and there’s lots of interactivity too. It was very interesting but also very emotional. Some of the stories I watched from people who experienced the earthquake and shared their stories did bring me to tears, so I’d suggest taking a handkerchief or some tissues if you are anything like me.

After Quake City we kept walking towards the city. We saw the Victoria Street Clock Tower, the Christchurch Cathedral – still surrounded with scaffolding as it is still being rebuilt following the earthquake damage. The timeline we saw says that stabilisation was completed in February 2023 but final rebuild completion is stated as ‘the end of 2027’, so still a way to go yet.  We walked around the city and saw a lot of things which I’ll show in a photo collage below rather than list them all out.  For dinner we walked from our accommodation to the nearby Carlton Hotel where I had trouble keeping my eyes open by that stage. It was very busy, crowded and noisy! There was a football game on that night! I recall having a delicious roasted vegetable stack sprinkled with some crumbled feta cheese.

SUNDAY 14 MAY – DAY 2

This morning we headed for the Avon River, and more specifically, the Antigua Boatsheds. We were going Punting on the Avon! First though, we had breakfast at the Boat Shed Cafe. The Punting on the Avon was so enjoyable! You basically climb in and you’re sitting on the floor. You have a lovely merino wool blanket to place over your legs to keep yourself toasty and warm. The young man who is our ‘punter’ was great – really informative commentary and lots of laughs and jokes thrown in for good measure. I really enjoyed it and it is most certainly worthwhile doing if you visit Christchurch. It’s fairly quick – around 30 minutes!

Next we went exploring more around the city and had morning tea somewhere (I can’t remember where) and then decided we’d better go do the Christchurch Gondola before we ran out of time. This meant catching a bus as it’s a fair way outside of Christchurch City at Heathcote Valley. This was definitely worth the effort. It provided some amazing views and much more education on the geography and geological history to Christchurch. When you get to the top of Mt Cavendish you’re at ‘The Summit Station’ and that includes the Red Rock Cafe, Christchurch Discovery Ride (a fun way to learn about the history of the region), and a gift shop. We did it all – the Discovery Ride, bought a few things from the Gift Shop and had lunch at the cafe. You get some incredible views of Lyttelton Harbour (Whakaraupō) from up at The Summit Station and there’s some little walking tracks up there (we didn’t do these as it was blowing a gale that day). Then you jump back on the Gondola and head back down to the base station in Heathcote Valley.

We returned to the city and decided to jump on the Christchurch Tram for a tour of the city – jumping off wherever takes our fancy. We jumped off at the Botanic Gardens and spent some time there but after walking around the gardens for a while, I could feel myself wearing out. We had still not recovered from our very late night/early morning. So we jumped back on the tram and got off at the stop closest to make our walk back to our accommodation the shortest. We picked up a frozen meal each from a supermarket and we had a quiet night in, zapping our dinner in the microwave. Early start tomorrow!

NOTE that before we left home we had purchased a CHRISTCHURCH PASS – which included tickets for 1) Punting on the Avon, 2) the Christchurch Gondola, and 3) the Christchurch Tram.

MONDAY 15 MAY – DAY 3

We were up bright and early today as we had a taxi arriving to take us to Christchurch Railway Station to catch the TransAlpine train across the island to Greymouth. I’ll save this story for the next NZ holiday post.

Christchurch Sketches

The plan at this stage is to follow up each of my NZ holiday posts with an ART CHAT post with my sketches from that same location. I’m not sure of what days I will post these yet so it’s a case of watch this space at the moment.

UPDATE: You can see my sketches that relate to this post HERE.

Ciao for now,

Linking up with Denyse Whelan’s ‘Wednesday’s Words and Pics‘