Christchurch and Drive to Dunedin

We had a wonderful breakfast this morning at our B&B while chatting with a couple from Wisconsin, then headed into the central part of the city of Christchurch.  It was only a couple of blocks away.  We hopped on the tram for a 50-minute tour.  We could have hopped on and off if we had more time, but getting the full tour was good.



This city was devastated by an earthquake on Feb 22, 2011.  185 people were killed and the tour guide said 80-90% of the central town buildings were either destroyed by the quake, or had to be torn down.  There is a lot of construction going on in Christchurch.  Not just reconstruction, but also new construction.

This building was rubble.

The cathedral in the main square is a point of debate.  You can see the cracks in the bricks here.



And the crumbling here, and at the back (sorry the picture is a little fuzzy).  It's really sad, but some people want to restore it while others say it's not worth it...just tear it down.



This is another brick building suffering, but this one is being rebuilt.  It's funny, the wooden ones survived the earthquake quite nicely.  It's the brick and mortar ones that suffered the most.



This is what they're putting under the existing larger buildings to retrofit them for earthquakes.  Every 15 feet or so apart.  So depending on the size of the building, there could be 30-40 of them, or more.  Expensive.



So we were on this tram and the driver was quite the guy.  He taught at the local university for many years, and did a gig at St. Mary's in Halifax, NS, for 7 years.  A very knowledgeable man.  Anyway, the tram we were on was the one Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip rode in 1995.  I sat where she sat and Gerard sat where Prince Philip sat.  And this driver drove them around Christchurch.  Cool, eh?

A shot of the Avon River.  This is Avon as in the Scottish river, not the English one.



We then headed down the road again toward Dunedin.  It was to be a fairly long drive (5 hours), but the road was much straighter, and it didn't take as long as they said.  We stopped for lunch at the Maori Rock Art Centre (not music) in Timaru.  We had our lunch with us and just ate outside on a park bench.  We considered the rock art tour, but for $44 NZ, and 45 minutes talking about art, that wasn't really our thing, so we passed on it.  This is the centre.



I liked this sign at the bar next to the art centre.



Here are Ppppilsener, Ppppetunias, and Pppppops.



We continued down the road and stopped at the Moeraki Boulders on the beach.  These round boulders were formed under the ocean floor at one time, then as the seas fell, they ended up above ground and have been washed out of the seaside cliffs.  Really strange to see them.  They look like giant bowling bowls.  Cool.

We arrived at our place in Dunedin around 4:30 pm.  What a beautiful spot.  Of all the places we've stayed, this room and its amenities are top-notch.  We're also within walking distance of the downtown.  This is our place from the outside - the top left unit with the balcony.

 

This is where we had dinner.  Just around the corner.  Baaa.  But neither of us had lamb.  We had a bit of leg of lamb at the Maori dinner back in Rotorua, but we haven't had lamb chops yet.  We will.

Tomorrow we're hanging out here in Dunedin.  Nice not to be moving for a change.