Christchurch
A lazy morning today since we'd decided to stay another night. We've also revised our plans and have decided not to travel any further south. Although I'm ~(Catherine) disappointed not to make it to Queenstown the roads are getting more challenging and we would need to have done some very long days in order to get back to Auckland in time, with no 2 night stays.
After James had another play on the playground - he now knows his own way and just walks off expecting one of us to follow!- we caught the bus into town again having read up last night on where to go. What a completely different experience!
 
We started at the Cathedral Square, which is lovely and bought tickets for the Tram which gives you a guided tour around the city. Christchurch is only 150 years old and by UK standards not very big (population 330,000) and we could easily have walked the tour on foot but it was nice to hop on and off at spots which looked interesting.
Our first stop was the Arts Centre which is on the spot of the original Canterbury University and is modelled on an Oxbridge College. It's full of quaint shops and restaurants and on Sundays has families sitting on the grass listening to live music. We had a super lunch overlooking one of the quads.
James then nodded off in the pushchair as we strolled around the botannical gardens along the River Avon (something funny going on with these place names here).
 
After a couple of cold beers we dined at Sticky Fingers along Oxford Terrace, and then back to base
8:36:12 PM 
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