12/29/2016 - Christchurch Ho!

Day of week: Wednesday

Cities visited: Oamaru, Christchurch, Lyttelton

Lodging: AirBnB

Today there aren't many photos or videos, nicely balancing out the over abundance of media from yesterday.

On Thursday we woke up and went for a run along the water and docks area of Oamaru. It was a reminder that the cities of NZ aren't always its best features. The dock area was a bit depressed and emptied out. On the bright side there was a nice running path to follow and it was good to stretch the legs after long periods of driving. We saw (of course) some more sheep and also a few other runners which was nice. We're going to try and build in some healthful mechanisms this year - Zach has signed up for some personal training sessions and Emma is getting reacquainted with her old road bike.

After the run we had brunch at The Galley, a nice little food shop on the water. Even though it was past their "breakfast time", they were nice enough to serve us the breakfast food we wanted. This has been typical of most New Zealanders we've met - polite and friendly to us as tourists and strangers. We ate outside watching small waves lapping the beach and enjoying the sunny day.

With full bellies we made the long drive to Christchurch. We stopped for some delicious local apricots and blueberries from a roadside produce stand, which we ate the rest of the trip. We also stopped at Temuka Pottery (Emma is her mother's daughter!) and saw some cute designs that were fun, though nothing moved us to purchase. Who wants to lug a bunch of pottery around the world? 

Once we made it to Christchurch we read and relaxed in our AirBnB. Energy restored, we made the short drive into Christchurch city center and walked through Victoria Square, a beautiful park. We also saw one of the Christchurch areas demolished by the 2011 earthquake. The space has been commandeered by Gap Fillers, a non-profit making earthquake-affected areas into fun public spaces including mini golf, an obstacle course, a piano, and more. It was a heartening example of people pulling together to recover from a disaster.

Christchurch area damaged by earthquake,
populated with temporary infrastructure by Gap Fillers

Then we drove over to Lyttelton which is a small town across a big hill from Christchurch and right on the water. We saw 3 story high piles of timber in the shipping yard, then made our way to a restaurant called Roots. Dinner there was really enjoyable and Zach had a sparkling water that brings back happy memories. Sleepy with food and drink, we went home and fell asleep almost immediately.