Exploring Christchurch

The beauty of getting to town at 11am is that we had all day to explore New Zealand's Garden City.

Victoria Park and the Avon River are across the street from the hotel. And only two blocks away is Christchurch Cathedral, the centerpiece of Cathedral Square. We had our very first NZ Fish & Chips experience at a rolling take away in the square. The Christchurch Tram rumbles through the city's Cultural Precinct and provides a great tour of some of the history.

We saw real, live kiwis at the Aquarium. You have to be absolutely quiet so as not to scare them. And you have to give your eyes a little time to adjust to the dark (they're nocturnal). But once you see them, they're adorable!

In the late afternoon, we decided to explore a little bit and ended up really, really lost. In fact, it's not possible that we could have ended up more in the opposite direction. (But we got to see some cricket along the way.) We wanted to go see Cave Rock... and turned up somewhere on the west side of the city (we should have been on the coast, on the EAST side). Eventually, we worked it out. And we got to see more of the city than we expected. Cave Rock was spectacular, by the way.

The Christchurch Gondola takes you up the side of a mountain. The views are spectacular! Unfortunately, the clouds began to roll in and the Southern Alps were obscured in the distance. Still, well worth the time and effort!

We had our first bottles of New Zealand's favorite, native beer, Steinlager. It's good, for beer. Dinner at the Blue Note Café in the New Regent Street entertainment district was really good... even if the service left a bit to be desired.

We're going to bed early, hoping to get our sleep schedules back to normal and eliminate any lingering jet lag.

All in all, day one was a blast! And there is so much yet to come!