What's there to do in Christchurch?

Monday 1^st November 2010 (white rabbits, white rabbits, white rabbits)

MP3 track of the day: Samwise the Brave - Lord of the Rings

Weather: Sunny with a cold strong breeze

I don't like today … the 1^st of November. November means the beginning of the end of my trip within New Zealand as I fly out next week (8^th November) and I would love to stay here another couple of weeks, maybe even another month … still, better make the most of my time while I'm here hey.

Again I was up a decent time and I was glad to see the old guy, in the bunk below me, had already checked out. Last night I watched the three girls, in my dorm, play a re-match of monopoly. They asked if I wanted to join, but I declined as it looked like a serious game and I eventually retired to bed before I saw the out come. Walking back to my dorm I thought about the game monopoly; the whole objective is to bankrupt your opponents whilst you own as much as you can with as much money as possible … what picture of our society is that painting?

I was about ready to go out and the three girls, in my dorm, were still fast asleep. They were all leaving today, and I wanted to wish them well, but I couldn't be bothered to wait around and so I just left the dorm. I was a bit unsure what I would actually do today; Christchurch is nice but there doesn't seem to be a lot to do. The only thing on my list was the Christchurch Botanical Gardens and Hagley Park … that should take up a couple of hours.

However before I got to the gardens I had to post home my souvenirs that I purchased yesterday. $43 (£21.00) it cost me to send home a hardback photo book, a jade pennant and a 4GB memory card full of photos … oh and some postcards. I thought about it and actually it's quite cheap; firstly its a heavy parcel and secondly that's delivery, to the UK, within five or six working days (or even three for the UK) … pretty good really.

I finally made it to the gardens and they were lovely. Within the park there were different gardens all with a particular theme; me being me, I decided that I wanted to see all the gardens and so I devised a route where I worked around the outside first gradually making my way to the center garden, the rose garden. Well it didn't quite work out how I planned but I did get to see all the gardens. Two bits which stuck out were the bonzi tree exhibition and a display garden that I thought, if I had my own garden in the UK, I would want it to look like this display (so I took quite a few photos). Walking around the gardens took three and a half hours and so it was time for lunch. I headed back into town for a pit stop at Subway before returning to the gardens and going into the Canterbury Museum, recommend by the three girls in my dorm.

Just like every other museum in New Zealand it was free to enter and, surprisingly, it was really, really good. The museum covered ancient maori lfe, 1950's decorative arts, Dinosaurs, Antarctica, Asian Arts (which included Samurai stuff … a nice little taster or what's to come in Japan, hopefully), Mummies and many, many other exhibits. The museum deserved a whole day, however I wasn't in a 'museum mood' and so I only spent two hours and quickly scanned all the exhibits. It was now 3pm and I had been on my feet all day, I was tired and so I headed back to my hostel. Surprisingly today had turned out to be a busy day which, if you had asked my this morning, I would have said that there was very little chance of that happening. In the end I've enjoyed Christchurch, it's taken me a little while to like the city, however I don't like it as much as Wellington (and no way near as much as Queenstown or Wanaka or Taupo) but it's still a good place to visit for a couple of days.

After chilling at my hostel for a while I went to the local fish and chip take away for tea before retiring to the common room to watch a little television. I need to have an early night to night as my bus to Dunedin is at 7:45am tomorrow morning.

Toodle Pip!