Still, the vast majority of buildings are looking pretty good.
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| Like the Chritchurch Cathedral in Cathedral Square. |
On Sunday I gladly escaped my smelly dorm room (this one guy’s feet were intensely pungeant) and decided to venture out to Lyttleton. It’s a burb on the other side of a range of small mountains, or big hills, I’m not sure. In any case, the bus went through a tunnel, and it took us 2:14 mintues to get to the other side, and he wasn’t driving slowly either.
Lyttleton is a burb built around a port, and has a gritty look and feel about it – thousands upon thousands of logs were piled up near the docks where rusty, decidedly un-picturesque barges were moored – yet also manages to be a bit artsy and a little boho. I found myself a table at a bakery on the main drag and had myself a "Splorg" slice (chocolate cakey-type thing with crunchy caramel topping). It was nice. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t, so I didn’t linger.
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| A few tourist vessels alongside some more robust boats. |
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| Despite the obvious utilitarian nature of the port, these people still have a pretty fantastic view. |
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| The clouds roll in. |
On Monday I met up with a friend I had met during my last visit to NZ, who has requested that I refer to him here as “Inki.” He’s a Yank by birth who, as his adopted moniker suggests, possesses a rather impressive collection of tattoos. He also now possesses something I covet very much – New Zealand residency status.
We’ve managed to keep in touch these past many months, and he's provided a lot of encouragement towards my move here. He stopped into Christchurch for a day on his way up to Auckland to start a new job. I’ll flatter myself and think that it’s because he wanted to see me J
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(Sorry about that, I just accidently found a way to insert a bunch of symbols. Strange, but cool!)
It had been hailing on and off most of the night and a good chunk of the morning, so we sought refuge indoors at the Art Gallery. It reminds me somewhat of the National Art Gallery of Canada in Ottawa in that the building is mostly glass, is rather interesting in and of itself, and its front doors are guarded by oversized statues. (sorry, no pics) It’s not a huge gallery though, so it didn’t take long for us to exhaust what it had on offer. After a nice lunch at an Indian restaurant, the weather had improved, so we took off for Sumner, another Christchurch burb on the water. Unlike Lyttleton though, Sumner is all posh and beach.
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| Sumner |
Inki began our little tour by bringing me to one of the many caves in the cliffs in the area, many of them just under houses. The opening was mere feet from a sidewalk and was no more than 3 feet high. I neglected to take a picture, but trust me, it was tight at first. It required a tight squeeze and a bit of a shimmy to get in, but then opened up to an area where we could stand up. A day later I was still finding sand in my pockets. It was pretty cool.
It was low tide, so we then walked along the water and at times in it (brrrrrrrrr) before hopping back on a bus to downtown.
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| Don't I look comfortable? |
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| Cave Rock, at the juncture of Sumner and Scarborough beaches at low tide. |
We finished off our visit with a trip to a (rather empty) pub with two guys who were staying in the same room as us and played a bit of pool and enjoyed a few pints. 'Twas a grand, if too short visit with Inki, but I'm sure we'll be meeting again soon.
Next up, Dunedin.
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