Christchurch

We must have arrived around 7:00 AM as the ship was rolling back and forth as we did a U-turn into our berth. We weren’t doing an organized tour today, so we slept in a little bit. I am still battling this cold, so I am trying to get as much rest as possible. We had our breakfast in La Terrazza after the rush. There was a continuous shuttle into town, so we were in no hurry. We were docked in Lyttletown, which was a 20-minute ride into the town of Christchurch. We ended up taking the 10:30 bus, which dropped us at Cathedral Square. 

The town is very reminiscent of what you would find in Europe and/or England and the people are extremely friendly. There is this very modern piece of architecture next to the cathedral. They are getting ready for a flower show, so they had these great animal sculptures made out of various plants and shrubs.

They have had about 430 earthquakes in the past year, so they are accustomed to a lot of seismic activity. I think the one thing that stood out to us was a storefront that was still decorated for Christmas, but had a sign that indicated the “due to the earthquake on 12/26/10, they would be close indefinitely."It was as though time had stood still.

We walked around a bit and decided to take the “city loop” tram around town. This tram was from 1910 and was a really nice way to tour the city. 

The river Avon could be seen throughout town and even had people on punt boats. For a moment I thought I was back in Cambridge, England.

We had a wonderful time going around town and seeing all of the sights. There was even some of the earthquake damage. 

By 3:30 we were back on the ship and even a bit tired. We even made it back in time for Bingo. Today Mom managed to win the full card round! We stayed for a bit a trivia for which we both did very well. Tonight was Informal, so we had to get back and dress up a bit. 

Striking a pose!

We went and listen to Eric and then on to dinner. Since I am still feeling a bit under the weather we dined by ourselves. We ordered off of the “everyday menu” so we had things like melon and prosciutto as well as French onion soup. We had an early morning so we decided to listen to Eric again for a bit and then head on to bed. We are now en route to Dunedin.