Holiday: Day 21 – Trambusters! – Exploring Christchurch

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6.25am: Hi Folks! Welcome to Tuesday! 😎. 20 days of great experiences so far, 12 to go! 👍

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Day 21 – Where are we?
(Tuesday, 19th November)

TODAY’S TRIVIA: A typical New Zealand winter is from June until August, whilst their Summer is from December to February.

It’s our first visit to Christchurch on the South Island and we have a full day here. We arrived yesterday afternoon after a mammoth 4½ hour drive from Picton. Although it might have been a long one, it was full of blue skies and unforgettable views. if you missed the photos – take a look HERE. 👍🌞😎.

First impressions of Christchurch? We took a quick walk around the local area yesterday, late afternoon, where it was chilly and very windy, there weren’t very many people about, and we got a strong feeling that, from a building perspective, although the reconstruction continues, there is still much to do here since the earthquakes in 2010 and 2011. So, it wasn’t the most positive of experiences, so we wanted to see more of the City today. The solution? The local Tram! 😀 – we are The Trambusters! 🙄😏

9.58am: After a quick breakfast, we set off for the short walk towards Cathedral Square. One thing that there is a LOT of here is murals street art! And they’re all very creative and well crafted.

Pretty much everywhere there was a blank wall, there was a display of some sort – all official, and they certainly brought some added colour to the City.

The Cathedral

10.08am: Before experiencing the Tram route, we attempted to take a look around the famous Cathedral. ChristChurch Cathedral, also called Christ Church Cathedral and Cathedral Church of Christ, is a deconsecrated Anglican Cathedral and was built between 1864 and 1904. It was heavily damaged in the earthquakes of 2010 and 2011 and is currently under reconstruction. Looking at the building they’ve achieved a lot, but like elsewhere here, there is much more to do.

I say ‘attempted to…’ because upon arrival, despite double-checking their website before we left (confirming it was open) – it WASN’T, unless you were wearing a hard hat! 🪖🪖. “Dear Archbishop, we wish you well with your renovations, but please tell your webmaster to update your website. We travelled 12000 miles to look around today and couldn’t get in – apparently, you’re closed!” 😉😀

Well, at least we got to admire the nearby sculpture celebrating 150th Anniversary of Christchurch and Canterbury.

The Tram

10.19am: The local Tram is a major tourist attraction here and it’s very popular. They don’t seem to have the well-known Big Bus arrangement in Christchurch, so the Tram was probably the next best thing for getting the ‘big picture’ and a sense of scale. For us, the other big attractions were the Botanic Gardens and Christchurch Cathedral having decided NOT to try The Gondola (that’s not a gondola at all, more of a cable-car) as we felt it wasn’t great value at 42NZD (£19.50) each.

The Tram is the ‘hop-on/hop-off variety and the full lap takes just under an hour to complete. They operate every 10-20 minutes from 8.30 until 6pm, so there’s never long to wait and they operate all day. There are 18 stops on the single route (no variations, ‘red;’, ‘blue’ etc etc) and an all-day pass will set you back 40NZD (£18.60) each.

We weren’t to realise it at the time, but our experience on the Tram – and more particularly, ‘Tom’ our driver – was to transform our initial impression of what Christchurch had to offer! 👍.

The Tram route is a figure of 8 – stops 1-9 then stops 10-18 – and it features a live commentary from the Driver that’s so much better than pre-recorded commentary often seen on the Big Bus Tours. If you’re here in Christchurch, we feel this is an absolute MUST-DO to gain a full appreciation of how far the City has evolved. And if you get ‘Tom’, our Driver, that’s a bonus! 😉👍😀

One of the first facts we learned about Christchurch was the reason – even more than 10 years after the quakes – why there are so many flat car-parks in the City. Simply put: everywhere there’s a car-park, there used to be a building! That gave us an instant impression of how much damage was inflicted on the City, courtesy of Mother Nature.

Earthquake Facts – Christchurch

📌 185 fatalities
📌 6659 people injured
📌 4500 vehicles stranded
📌 $370 million insurance costs
📌 3500 homes destroyed
📌 10000 homes needed to be rebuilt
📌 11000 business premises destroyed
📌 90% of heritage buildings destroyed

Phew! 🙄😲🤔. And today, in 2024, they’re still attempting to rebuild, renovate and restore, meaning it’s very much ‘Work in Progress’. Predictably, maybe, in many places (The Cathedral is a perfect example), costs and technical issues are preventing further work, so any further activity has ceased.

Scenes from the Tram

The Botanic Gardens

11.01am: It seems that every major town and city has its own Botanical Gardens out here – it’s obviously a feature of the climate and Christchurch is no different. Owned and managed by the Council, Christchurch’s version was founded in 1863 when an English oak was planted to commemorate the solemnisation of the marriage of Prince Albert (later, King Edward VII) and Princess Alexandra of Denmark. More memorable than a toaster, ehh? 😉. Covering 21 hectares (about 50 acres in ‘English money’) it sports 50,000 different species (no, we didn’t check!) and sees around I million visitors per year. It has slightly unusual opening hours, depending on what time of year you visit – for example, in the Summer it’s open from 7am! 😴💤

In the entrance to the Botanic Gardens we were greeted by the Peacock Fountain. I know what you’re thinking: there’s a peacock in there somewhere… And you’d be wrong! 😏 Herons, dolphins (but no whales) and lily-leaves all feature… but that’s it! So, where does the ‘peacock’ part come from? Apparently, notable businessman and politician John Thomas Peacock (rude? 🤔) gifted £1000 and this was put towards the cost of the fountain.

But hey, we weren’t here for peacocks! Given that the seasons are reversed here, we wanted to see the rose display that we’re told is ‘impressive’. Yeah, yeah, let’s decide for ourselves, thank-you! 🤔🤔

Ok, I’m a photographer not a gardener, but even I know some of the following aren’t roses! Still pretty though! 😀👍

11.27am: Yes, OK that was VERY impressive! 👍👍👍👍👍. There was plenty more to see here, but we chose ‘coffee and a doughnut’ over ‘Rhodededrons and Azalias’!

11.45am: Then it was back to the Tram Stop, where we stayed on for another almost complete circuit and got off where the shops were.

We had a quick look around (there’s plenty to get your ‘retail therapy’ fix here!) and where most of the shops were completely rebuilt after the earthquake.

We dropped in Ballantynes – New Zealand’s best known Department Store (and still family-owned since 1854) to pick up a few gifts.

A great experience and we then headed back to the Apartment.

Where we realised why the area is called ‘The Atlas Quarter‘.

1.45pm: Back to base here at the City Central Apartments where writing this, sorting the ironing and cooking the meal for tonight became the order of the day for us two! Trambusters Disassemble, before packing for our departure tomorrow.

Today had been another great day, and we both commented on how our impression of Christchurch had changed since our Tram journey this morning! I could have easily spent another day here. 👍😀

Tomorrow, we leave Christchurch and drive to Akaroa on the eastern tip. We’ve been advised it’s a bit of a twisty and difficult road (hence 81km taking 85 minutes) but you know us, we DO love a challenge! 😲😲

See you Wednesday! 👍