We're back on the move again and left Australia this morning to fly to Christchurch, our first stop in New Zealand. As much as I looked forward to and subsequently enjoyed the time in Australia, I was looking forward to New Zealand just as much, if not more. You don't hear about it as often as a destination spot but I'm going to let my inner nerd loose and admit that ever since I saw Lord of the Rings (all 3 in director's cut version which were even longer that the theatrical versions), I've wanted to visit New Zealand. The cinematography and scenery just looked amazing and I wanted to see some of those vistas for myself.
We arrived in Christchurch this afternoon, straight into more gorgeous weather, in the 70s and sunny. Absolutely perfect! We did a very brief walking tour (Christchurch isn't that big) and visited the Blue Pearl Gallery which is a jeweler who makes jewelry from the pearls harvested from abalones as well as from abalone shells themselves. We got an interesting video and talk about how the process works then were set loose on the showroom floor to look at and purchase any jewelry that captured our fancy. I haven't been much of a tourist in that I haven't bought more than the random magnet here and there and a few gifts to bring home since I'm not into as much "stuff" anymore and don't need to buy something just because I'm on vacation. But I really liked some of the pieces and ended up buying a couple of rings, one for me and one for my mom. I'll let her pick which one and I'm deliberately writing it publicly so I can't change my mind and keep both for myself, lol.
We have a little free time this evening so I had dinner with some of my fellow travelers at a pub. Got the fish n chips again but was disappointed. The fish was tough. The fries were okay but the fish wasn't as good as what I had in Australia. That might have cured me of fish n chips for the remainder of the trip. I think I've had them 4 times now and that's more times than I usually have fish n chips in a year.
The most exciting thing (to me) that I've discovered about Christchurch so far is there's a local shop called the Fudge Cottage and they give hour-long tours every weekday on how they make fudge. We have a city tour tomorrow morning but it should end in time for me to make the fudge tour as long as they have open spots - our tour director was still trying to get me in. It's a geeky thing to be excited about but if I could travel to the jungles of Belize for a weeklong chocolate tour, I can do a one-hour fudge tour in New Zealand to see fudge being made. Told you I was letting my inner nerd out.
Christchurch Cathedral
It sounds like a wonderful vacation! I need to go read the rest of your blog entries, now.
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