Christchurch

Time to return the van and sleep within 4 walls again. We haven't finished our New Zealand adventure quite yet but unfortunately we have to pack up our bags and say farewell to our four wheeled friend who has looked after us for the last 30 days. When we originally planned our trip we weren't sure how long we would need in the van so we opted for a 30 day rental, turns out we needed longer but by the time we had figured that out we were unable to extend the van. We will soon be getting a little car to finish off the South Island, but first we are exploring the bars, restaurants and maybe some museums in New Zealand's second 'biggest' town, big is not really the right word to use here though, as its only around 370,000 people, so a bit smaller than Liverpool, or a bit bigger than Lille.

Christchurch history is synonymous with earthquakes as the city is located reasonably close to one of the the bigger fault lines. The most recent one that did a lot of damage to the town and the nearby area was in 2011. There were actually a few earthquakes in a row at end of 2010 and beginning of 2011. In February 2011 a 6.3 magnitude earthquake hit just 10km southeast of the city and 5km deep. It did a lot of damage and the city is slowly rebuilding. We learnt all this in a busy little museum, it was mainly busy because it was raining almost the whole time we were here!

Luckily our first morning was sunny so we managed to enjoy the beautiful botanical gardens with some big trees and a lot of dahlias. We walked around the city that has remodeled the riverside quite well with good walking pavements everywhere. They have a little tram here, only for tourists we think, but apart from this we didn't see much public transport. As we're staying in the center it wasn't a problem but we could see a lot of car parks for commuters.

On our second and third day we were not so lucky with the weather but that allowed us to go to the museums, starting with Quake City and followed by the modern art gallery and to finish with the, Canterbury museum. Canterbury is the name of the region Christchurch resides in and we were expecting geological, historical or natural information, perhaps learning about animals like the Moa. To our surprise, at the entrance we found out that the museum was going through a major redesign and all the collections were in storage. However, for the last few months before the building is closed for renovations for at least 5 years, they have done an exhibition with local and international street artists. This was actually really good! They opened all the rooms of the building and let the artists loose to create whatever they wanted. There were 5 floors of different styles, from Graffiti, murals, sculptures and classic street art. We found it was a really interesting idea and a good use of a space for art that is in its definition temporary!

Christchurch was a good little break in the journey for us. We felt that we needed some days off the road to recharge our batteries and have a bit of time to do nothing and eat some more good food cooked by someone else, not having to do the dishes has become a luxury!Okumaya devam et