Saturday, February 15, 2025

Down Under 2025 - Christchurch

Christchurch, New Zealand. 14/16-February-2025.

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Arriving on Friday evening and leaving early on Sunday morning essentially meant only one day in Christchurch. In typical M&M style we packed a lot in.

Friday 14. While on the train our Booking.com host sent a message claiming maintenance issues at our apartment and switched us to a different apartment further from the centre of Christchurch. The new accommodation was a very smart two bed apartment but not within easy walking distance of anywhere. A lesson learned for us this weekend; there are dodgy owners even on the main accommodation booking sites. Our advice is: 

  • read down through the reviews, not just the few at the top 
  • do not trust a high overall score without looking at all the reviews, watch out for lots of suspicious-looking one-word reviews with high scores 

We had planned to eat out for a Valentine’s meal but because of the change in location we ended up dining in with a meal of penne and a jar of sauce purchased from a local convenience store that was just managed to get in to as the owner was pulling down its shutters at 8:30. Still we washed it down with a pricy bottle of delicious Pinot Noir purchased in Cromwell.

Saturday 15. Saturday is, of course, parkrun day and an opportunity to add New Zealand to our list of country flags at Hagley Park.

A humorous sign: ”It’s just a walk in a park”.

Some years ago I made cyber-friends with a fellow blogger, Lynette Lusk, who happened to live close to Mary’s mum. We subsequently met in real life several times. She sadly passed away but we knew that her daughter lived in Christchurch. Widower Tommy put us in touch with and we were able to meet up her and husband Antz. They drove us up Coronation Hill, for a coffee with a fantastic view of an old volcanic crater!

Back in Christchurch we visited the Quake City museum to learn all about the devastation and rebuilding following the 2010 / 2011 catastrophic earthquakes. 

Next we took a city tour on one of their historic trams. A great way to travel round the centre and see the rebuilding and restoration works.

Christchurch Cathedral under wraps. Apparently they have run out of money to complete all the repairs required after the earthquakes.

Finally we went for a lovely walk in the botanical gardens for a couple of hours. This is striking Haemanthus coccineus, the blood flower, blood lily or paintbrush lily.

In the gardens we saw a family of California Quail: dad, mum and some of their fast moving chicks.

That evening we had a lovely meal and and opportunity to taste Waipara wines meal at Downstairs, the sister company to Twenty Seven Steps which was recommended but fully booked.

Sunday 16. An early start to catch the Coastal Pacific Train to Blenheim.

Next: Blenheim, 16/19-February-2025.

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