Today was mainly a travel day – and also mainly will be photos.
We stopped by on our way to Rotorua Airport (about the size of Santa Rosa airport) and visited a redwood forest that had been planted about 100 years ago.
It was odd to see coast redwoods in and amongst huge tree ferns!
This was interesting to me – this gigantic redwood “celebrates” the first woman – in the world! – to get a forestry degree. (She was Welsh, but settled in New Zealand.)
Check out these bathrooms at the redwood grove! Super cool and artsy 😊
Finally was able to snag a photo (in passing) of the gigantic camelia trees!
Our plane – and a shirt and the airport that made me laugh (Hello, Dr Seuss!)
We did have some turbulence on landing – though I didn’t think a lot of it. I spoke with Lynn later, and she was actually going over her finances/will/trust in her head! I believe that she blogged about it. We weren’t sitting together, so I didn’t know about it til we got to the hotel!
Our hotel is the Rydges, about a 10-15 minute walk from the CBD. Unfortunately upon heading to our room, Lynn and I were given one bed – nope. I had to wait quite some time to get this rectified – we now have a room with a queen and a single. We therefore had a lot less time than the rest of our “merry band” to get acclimated/unpacked/etc.
The Silver Ferns – New Zealand’s women’s professional “netball” team (basically like basketball) is staying at our hotel after a game in Australia. Coming back up from securing the new room, I was in the elevator with some of them. One had a chill pack on her knee, and I asked if she was all right – she said yes, it was to keep herself all right – which made me laugh. They commented that I was “regular sized” and asked if I had “played ball in my day” (ah yes, now that I’m a faded glory…). Instead of mentioning that I’d done fencing (which I had done in college), I said that I rowed and they nodded knowingly. :-) Rod was quite taken by the fact that they were in our hotel. It was kind of fun to see his reaction!
I will insert more about the devastating 2011 earthquake later, but the photos pretty much tell the story. There were many murals on the walls. The government invited artists to “pretty up” the sides of building that were left uninhabitable by the earthquake. Basically, Christchurch never thought it would be hit. “Everyone” though that the surrounding hills (“Ring of Fire”) would bear the brunt of it, so the buildings, people, etc. just were not prepared. Here’s some murals, and our tram around Christchurch:
These photos are of the cathedral. It will be 2027 before it’s functional again. During the quake, the tower of the original neo-Gothic Cathedral collapsed. Further aftershocks destroyed the iconic rose window and cracked the whole Cathedral like a plate.
A tram going past the cathedral (taken from the 4th floor of the library):
Fun photos from the library – completely new after the earthquake.
War memorial (“Canterbury” is their county):
From the wall of the ice cream/gelato store – made me laugh (okay, and, of course, copyright infringement!):
And an arch memorializing the farmers’ kids who had headed off to war – basically to be cannon fodder.
Finally, quite an amazing “trompe l’oeil” mural – of what used to be there before the earthquake. Yes – this is all painted on (except the very last building, facing you, with the windows – that’s real :-) – there is a street between that and the trompe l’oeil murals).
We went to an Irish pub for dinner – half of us wound up there, the other half at the “food market” area that reminded me of the one in Seattle. Had some lager and a delicious Irish lamb stew New Zealand food does not disappoint! Tomorrow – when it’s supposed to snow! – we are off to a sheep shearing station and for a lamb bbq lunch :-)
If you want $100 off, call OAT at 1-800-955-1925 and request a catalog, tell them you were referred by Sandy Shepard, customer number 3087257, and get $100 off your first trip!