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Time to see more of this interesting place. Not far from the city there is a gondola that takes you to the peak of the Port Hills. From here there is a 360 degree view over Lytellton Harbour, the Brighton beaches, the city and the Canterbury Plains in the distance. Fortunately it was quite a clear day and the view was amazing. Back down the gondola and through the road tunnel to Lytellton. It's the major port for Christchurch and the surrounding areas and is basically the reason why the town exists. Lytellton was badly damaged in the earthquakes and is still very much in a rebuilding phase. Surprisingly it a reasonably picturesque place but having said that there is not a lot to see and do. From here it was a very pleasant coastal drive long the shores of Governors Bay, finally reaching Diamond Harbour. This little village is directly across the harbour from Lytellton and it was good to be able to look back at the port and town area from a different perspective. The local Lytellton-Diamond Harbour ferry arrived with a quite a few passengers both disembarking and then boarding for the return trip. My drive home via Dyers Pass, which was the original road access into Lytellton, was a pleasant change of scenery. The Christchurch Botanic Gardens are a major attraction in the city and it's not hard to see why. Almost encircled by the Avon River, there is a constant sound of running water everywhere you go. The gardens themselves are extensive and divided into many different sections, such as the Azalea & Magnolia Garden, Alpine Garden and the Australian Garden to just name a few. Due to the season there was not a lot of colour about but a few of the deciduous trees were starting to show their autumn colours. And across from the gardens there was a very serious model yacht race underway. Probably 20-25 yachts completing a course around Victoria Lake. Seemed like a good way to spend a morning. Thursday heralded the worst weather I had experienced here. Cold, wet, windy and generally miserable and the forecast is that this will be here for the next couple of days. That being the case I decided to head to the Antarctic Centre. Christchurch is the centre for Antarctic activities for NZ, Italy and the USA. The US have a massive complex at the airport directly across the road. The Centre provides a great overview of the history of Antarctic exploration and current day scientific studies. They also have a penguin enclosure which houses mainly injured and maimed Little Blue penguins, which incidently are only found in NZ, and not the Antrarctic. I also got to my have my first, and probably my last, ride in a Hagglund, which is one of the primary forms of land transport in Antarctica. Very rough but it provided a great example of the capabilities of these ungainly looking vehicles. In the Winter Storm room, which is at a constant temperature of -8 they kick the wind machine into life which creates a wind chill factor of -19. Yep, it's cool! Fortunately the weather improved and the opportunity to do a hike on the Banks Peninsula couldn't be missed. There were a quite number to choose from but the Round the Mountain would provide great views over Akaroa Harbour and also over the Pacific Ocean. 9.5km shouldn't be too bad. What I didn't allow for was the constant climb. Over 6kms I climbed 610 metres, which meant that for every 10 metres I walked I also gained 1 metre in elevation. Normally that's not too bad, but over 6 km my heart and lungs were asking all sorts of questions. But on the upside I walked through some truly beautiful rain forest, got to see great views across the harbour to the hills on the other side and experienced some wonderful peace and tranquility. And my lunch stop with uninterupted views across the Pacific was hard to beat. Akaroa has a strong French influence and in fact many of the streets have French names. It really is a very pretty seaside village nestled into the foot of the hills that make up the peninsula. So a great day and the start to what is going to be a very busy week. But more of that later.
- comments
Sarah Sounds like you’re having a great time Doug.
Lyn Cumming My goodness how fit are you going to be on your return! Off to the ‘G’ on Monday for the big game. Hope there is a big improvement this week.
Joan Hobbs Hi Doug, All sounds wonderful, it's a gorgeous country isn't it. Keep well regards Joan