Wednesday 9 March – out and about in Christchurch

Judith had a meeting this morning in the city and dropped me at the Art Gallery for a couple of hours and we arranged to meet 12.15 at the Museum nearby.

The Art Gallery is a modern stylish building opened in 2003 by prime minister Helen Clarke, I read on the plaque. However, Judith told me later that it has been closed for three years owing to subsidence caused indirectly by the earthquake, and only opened a few months ago.

There were some lovely pieces in various exhibitions in wide light open spaces. I particularly liked the wood engravings and some work by Petrus Van der Velden.

I walked on down to the Museum along the tramway and noted the beautiful botanical gardens alongside. Buildings all around are being restored, particularly the Arts Centre which used to be the old university, where they had built a new roofed turret.

The museum was something else! Room after room of well designed exhibitions on subjects including of course the history of New Zealand and the Maoris and then Captain Cook. Two groups of school children were having a history lesson. I enjoyed listening to their intelligent answers but not quite what the teacher was wanting from them.

There was an excellent exhibition of the birds of NZ with life size stuffed models in their habitats. I saw the Waxeyes as well as the poor hawk Jessie and I had saved from suffering. I was also able to confirm the sighting of a harrier on the way down to Christchurch yesterday.

There were also exhibitions of Antarctic expeditions and energy and ecological conservation…. by this time I was on overload and it was getting near 12.15.

My silly Alcatel started making a weird noise…. had to be an incoming call from Judith wondering where I was but could I answer the darn thing???? Fortunately she suddenly appeared in front of me. Off we went to a little cafe attached to the YHA for lunch.

After lunch Judith took me on an amazing tour of the city which included the River Avon, her beautiful school, Rangi Ruru Girls, many buildings which had been condemned or in the process of restoration, or completely replaced with a brand new design. Often there were huge open spaces where buildings had once been.

Judith then took me out to Mount Pleasant, a lovely coastal area, popular for walks. On the way there she pointed out cliff faces that had come away during the earthquake leaving homes hanging, their contents exposed. There was a primary school at the foot of a rocky incline that had been closed ever since. Containers are being used everywhere to shore up unsafe areas. We also saw an area once occupied by an Anglican Church. All that remained was the lychgate! I think we saw these growing near Napier Leigh, when I was last over. Can you remind me what they’re called?

We returned via the local Mall where I managed to buy an Apple connection lead for uploading images from my camera, after the cheap one I bought on line appeared to have failed. I also got a few lessons from Spark how to use my Alcatel (soon no longer to be mine, I assured them!)

At last back to Hyde Park for a welcome cuppa while Ross showed be round his productive garden.