One day in Christchurch

The next day, Lydia hopped back in the car to meet up with some friends for a second trek. I stayed in Christchurch for a day of exploring with Brooke, another Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar. Christchurch is about 350,000 people large, and was actually quite spread out ... but still had something of a small town feeling, after spending so much time in Auckland!

We started out by wandering around the city centre ...

This is a fairly famous cathedral in Christchurch. We didn't go inside, but the exterior was certainly impressive.

This was the old University of Canterbury campus (Brooke's school), until the Uni just outgrew the property. It seems to be some sort of arts complex now, with a bunch of artists and crafts persons displaying their work.

One of the standard touristy things to do in Christchurch is, apparently, to go punting on the Thames ... it would be much cooler if the punter sang, Venice-style, but it was still a lovely ride.

This monstrosity is at the entrance to the Christchurch Botanical Gardens. It's in memorial of someone ... either someone with bad taste or a great sense of humor.

This giant metal rose marks the entrance to the rose gardens. Where I took WAY too many pictures.