Christchurch, New Zealand-January 19

Today we sailed into the harbor of Lyttelton-the port city for Christchurch. The landscape was different from Dunedin in that it isn't that lush green we saw. This port is very sheltered and is a natural harbor created by the crater of an extinct volcano. The port is the busiest port on the South Island shipping mostly lumber.

Christchurch is the most English city in New Zealand. The familiar English names on the astreets attested to that. The lovely Avon River runs through the town.

On the top of a hill is The Ball House. An 80 year old man is responsible for working the mechanism that raises and lowers the ball at 1:00PM. Been going on for a long time for people to set their watches. 

 The area was settled by the English in 1850. The Maori native citizens had been here for centuries. At first all seemed to go well between the English and the Maori . The Mao bird- standing about 5 feet tall- was very docile and so the English almost wiped them out for food. This naturally led to serious conflict between the two people. The Canterbury Museum in Christchurch describes some of that conflict.

We found a wonderful gallery and purchased a neat Maori carving with images about storytelling and the importance of people keeping their stories alive. We did have the piece shipped.

Christchurch is the 2nd largest city in New Zealand with 335,000 people. It has been named the "Garden City of New Zealand" and we did see some beautiful flowers. The first settlers first stopped in Lyttelton and then made their way across the mountains to settle Christchurch. We made a journey up steep and curvy roads to "Sign of the Takahe" which is Maori for "sign of home." The view was beautiful, the sky was blue and the air was crisp. Our bus driver did a great job on the narrow roads which were made more difficult by the bikers going up and down the hills. I saw one moterbike- and about 100 regular pedaling bikes. Looked like hard and risky work to me.

New Zealand is known for its native birds and the kiwi is one of them. The kiwi is the official bird and the unofficial name for folks from this area.

We have seen a large evidence of Presbyterian mission work in both of the cities we have visited so far in New Zealand.

In Christchurch for this week-end is the World Buskers Festival. Buskers wasn't a word I knew- refers to a musician or other artist who sets up to perform and has a container to collect donations. We saw a most clever guy playing a violin and the bow operated a puppet also playing a violin. Heard some other musicians. We decided this is an English influence since the Canadians on our bus knew that term and the US folks didn't.