Last day on the South Island... It's gone so fast

Today we drove to Christchurch a rather long and boring trip.  Kearie was looking up motels for tonight, she found we could stay in a converted prison but I declined, shared toilets were bad enough, but I refuse to use buckets... She said at least we wouldn't have to share them... but you never know. we went for a more upmarket place and we have a small suite, it is very nice.

Each building is named after one of Henry the VIII wives.

But upon arrival in Christchurch we immediately went on a punt ride, it was excellent, lovely views and a lovely young Scot to deliver the commentary and pole us through the water.  We both really enjoyed it.  The park is lovely and the river we were on is called the Avon, like the one in Scotland.

Kiwis have a funny way of talking, it is like they just pick a vowel and don't use the recommended ones... They say es instead of as, so the a is pronounced as an e.  Today I heard a young lad tell his brother to stop being a deck, I looked and the kid wasn't pretending to be a patio, so I assume he meant "stop being a dick." So the i was pronounced e.  Very interesting.... They sound great though, I do like their accent.

After our punt ride we went on a tram ride around Christchurch.  It has been 4 years since the earthquake, but the devastation is still everywhere, it is a city under construction.  A lot of people must have left too, as the city is no longer the second largest in New Zealand, it is now the third largest.  They lost 185 people in the quake, that would not be enough to alter the statistics that drastically.  We saw a lot of the buildings that fell, and some that had to be demolished due to damage.  It was quite sad and very sobering.

 You can see the damage to this beautiful old church.  After the first quake they put up some scaffolding to protect the wonderful windows, but in subsequent quakes they acted like battering rams and broke all the windows.  The bell tower also collapsed.

Many shops are still operating out of shipping containers, they are all around the area, being used for different things, but business must go on, for people to survive.

We then went to a nature reserve to see the Kiwi's we saw two, which was great, but we were not allowed to photograph them, I was really happy to see them though.  We also saw wallabies and emus...  Come to new Zealand and see Aussie animals... It was a taste of home.  They had some awesome birds etc, but most of them were not native to new Zealand.  It was worth the visit though, just to see the Kiwis.

 Wallaby

 Lemurs

Gibbons

Lots of other animals and none of them New Zealand natives.. But I don't think they must have many native animals, only birds and small rodents.  Not sure.

We went to the RSA  for dinner, like our RSL, only the Kiwi version.  The food was really good, Kearie is still drooling... I loved the menu.  The Entree was called The first Mission, the main course was The main operation, with the sides listed as Reinforcements and Sweets were The Final Push.  I thought it was really clever and shall attach a pic.

We have really enjoyed Christchurch and will one day hopefully come back.

We are off to Auckland tomorrow and will be flying home Sunday, it has been such a whirlwind trip, next time I shall come for a month...  we hope to do a volcano in Auckland so I shall let you know.