Day Five - Exploring Christchurch

Day Five saw us take the car out of inner Christchurch and begin to explore our rural surroundings. Yo remembered visiting a small town called Lyttleton in her childhood, so we set our phones sat nav and went for a wander.

Getting to Lyttleton was fairly simple. A long tunnel cut the the middle of a large range of hills that cut the two settlements, and before we knew it, we were driving up Lyttleton's perilously narrow roads, set up on perilously high hills. Fortunately it was Waitangi Day (a public holiday celebrating the signing of the Waitangi Treaty between Maori natives and European Settlers; essentially 'creating' what is now known as New Zealand) so the roads were quiet and we could drive up and down the roads as slow and as cautious as we liked. We went down the same road so many times that at one pint a passer-by stopped us and asked if we were lost!

After a while we'd seen our fill, and parked up beside a vegetarian Cafe to enjoy a coffee and a brownie. It was the kind of place that used reclaimed furniture and  quirky posters to give a hippie feel - it worked, but at the same time I got a bit of a pretentious vibe - quite the opposite from what they were trying to create, I suppose.

Coffee drank, we headed out into the hills. Destination: Victoria Park; a large nature reserve where Yo remembered visiting a few times (it had a really big slide, apparently). The only problem was that to get there we had to drive through a stretch of road called Dyers Pass, a stretch of road with cliffs, cliffs, cliffs. Large, perilous drops with very little between the road and death. In some places you got a slightly raised kerb, but mostly there was nothing. As I clenched my sphincter, I prayed that once we headed south in a few days and got to the true mountain ranges, that the roads would have a few more safety barriers...

Victoria Park

Victoria Park is a large open grassland with the occasional forest walk. Set high up on the hills next to Christchurch, it was pretty blustery, but the sun was out making it prime time for sunburn.

Yo remembered a playground with the worlds largest slide, so that was our first destination. Unfortunately it was full of kids, so we took a quick walk around the park. There were some great views of the Canterbury Basin, including incredibly distant snow-capped mountains.

As we wandered towards the visitor's centre, we had another reminder of the devastation and reach of the 2010/2011 earthquakes.

Finally we headed back to the car, and we caught a quick glimpse of an empty slide. Naturally, Yo couldn't resist.

Christchurch

In the afternoon we decided to head back to Christchurch and explore the city centre. Amidst a ruined district we found a place to park, and wandered vaguely towards the Cathedral.

I was amazed by the damage caused by the quake. Five years on, the demolition companies are still in full swing and must be one of the major sources of employment within the city. One in every three buildings within downtown Christchurch was damaged in the earthquakes, and most of them have been pulled down.

Cleverly, they've managed to spin some light into the overwhelming destruction - many of the buildings that were pulled down have since been levelled and turned into temporary car parks. Charging a couple of dollars per hour, it's not the expensive prices you'd expect in a city centre, but they get to make some money and there's always some place to park.

After a sunburning wander through the centre, we found another geek bar for food; Astro Lounge!

Yes, this was perhaps one of the greatest bar / coffee shop I'd ever been in. Set almost entirely outside under tarps and awnings, it was catering to a similar crowd to that morning's vegetarian coffee shop, but managed to pull it off much, much better. Choosing a table next to a gas heater, we chose our food. Yo had 'Asteroids around Uranus', whilst I chose the 'Stargrazer burger'. The food was great, and marked the first time I'd ever had beetroot on a burger.

During the meal, we noticed that that evening they had a jazz / soul singer (Kate Anastasiou) playing live music there. It was a few hours away, and as we both felt drained we decided to retreat back to our apartment for a couple of hours rest and come back later - it was well worth it. She played a mix of her own work with renditions of modern greats (with her own spin - a fair few of which it took awhile to recognise).

We stayed for a couple of hours, drinking coffees, hot chocalates and eating a fatty deserts (a doughnut with ice cream and raspberries sauce). It made me wish there was someplace like that in Worksop, but if there was it would soon close down - who wants to drink coffee when there's Jaegerbombs to neck??