… two years later. The Oosterdam anchored outside of Akaroa because the docks normally used by cruise ships were destroyed by the earthquake. After a long tender ride, we took a scenic hour and a half bus ride to Christchurch. Along the way were lovely flowering trees and shrubs, sheep and cows, lakes and mountains, pretty boathouses, and Victorian cottages.
The bus dropped us in front of the Canterbury Museum with four hours to spend wandering Christchurch. We spent a pleasant couple of hours perusing the interesting collection, including an extensive display about the exploration of Antarctica with lots of original artifacts, a large exhibit about the now extinct Moa bird, which was hunted by early inhabitants of the area, and galleries devoted to fashion, geology, etc. There were displays of Maori (pronounced like the word marry) greenstone (aventurine) carving, and the requisite dinosaur and mummy.
Arguably, the best exhibit was the “lounge” (living room), from Fred and Myrtle’s Paua (POW-uh) Shell House. Married for 73 years, in the 50s they began to nail the paua shells Fred collected and polished on the inside walls of their house. They opened the house, on a major road, to tourists, of whom there were more than a million from around the world. The living room was moved to the museum, which plays a short film narrated by Fred and Myrtle. The curator showed us their favorite shell and why it is a special one among thousands: it’s the only one with scalloped edging. One of Myrtle’s shell arrangements is also on display.
Photos don’t do it justice!
We emerged from the museum later than expected, and quickly made a beeline for the many shops carrying handmade New Zealand items. Typical items include hand-carved wooden bowls made from exotic indigenous varieties of trees, jewelry and talismans made from greenstone, beautiful hand-knit woolen wear of every type, hand-tooled leather bags and pouches, and the ubiquitous Uggs. One of the more unusual items was a “leather” jacket carved from wood. This would look great over Dennis Thompson’s carved wooden dress!
On Worcester Street, we spied punts for hire on the River Avon. Two nattily dressed young men ran the boat concession, and helped us into the almost-flat-bottomed boat, identical to those found in Oxford, England. Poling against the shallow, rock-covered bottom, he sent us slowly up and down the river, beautifully lined with weeping willows and other lovely trees. Our bus driver later mentioned that the punts had only recently begun running again, but customers were scarce.
We hadn’t had lunch so after our ride we stopped at a street vendor’s stand for a ham and egg pie with New Zealand soda – sold in a glass bottle with a pull tab! Frank bravely tried the Feijoa & Pear variety, even after being warned about its perfumey taste! It was a lovely lunch by the river.
There is a lot of earthquake damage still visible in Christchurch, but not much in the area we were in. Houses on the hillsides are still dangling precariously. Many people simply fled, afraid the next earthquake would be worse. The city sits on a fault line, so there will be more earthquakes. Proposals have been made to move the entire CBD (Central Business District) off the fault line and place it somewhere outside of the city. Plans are still tentative. The lovely cathedral sits, half destroyed, awaits a plan; money is scarce for the type of restoration needed. Buildings are being repaired throughout the city. This one sits near the museum.
We climbed back on the bus for the ride back to the small fishing village of Akaroa where we walked around the shops, and tried unsuccessfully to buy some fish and chips made with the local blue cod. Everyone recommends that you specify blue cod when ordering; consequently, by the time we got there, the blue cod was gone for the day. Perhaps in the next port.
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