A River Runs Through It

Or five.  A lot of waterways and tributaries.  It’s a flat expanse Christchurch is, a grid system of streets offset by a meandering Avon river which intersects at random and, well, a lot of other meandering things.

 

Our hotel sits to the west, next to an expansive, lush and well-manicured jewel, Hagley Park; which also hosts the Botanic Garden, sporting fields and, yes, a croquet club.  It takes about half an hour to walk from the hotel to the city centre, but most of that walk is through the park.  So a very appealing and pleasing walk.  And flat; after the inclines of Auckland and the hills of Wellington, Christchurch is something of a walker’s paradise.

And walk we did.  Day 1 Christchurch: 33,749 steps.  We saw a bit of it.

Not much to say about the Hilton here; it’s the third, and final points hotel for us.  If you rated them, it was gold in Auckland, silver in Wellington, bronze in Christchurch.  But the central courtyard has a lovely garden which offsets the rather sprawling motor court theme elsewhere.

For our first day we set off across Hagley Park, cut through the city centre, down into the southeast “loft” district, back to the cathedral and transitional cathedral, west into the park to check out the Botanic Gardens, into the city for lunch, dipped into the Christchurch Art Gallery, then a long stretch of a walk to the west near the train station and back to the hotel.  Short rest.  Then another half hour walk to the city for dinner, and back.

 

Although the centre is awash in new builds since the 2011 earthquake, remnants and reminders of the quake, and derelict buildings still half standing, abound.  The original cathedral, Christ Church Cathedral, is in year 14 of a rebuild, while the transitional “cardboard” cathedral gets waves of daily tourists.

Although there was a rather impressive traditional rose garden, there was also a heritage rose garden.  Each rose in the garden has existed since before 1867—which was the year the first hybrid tea rose was bred.  So every rose in the traditional garden was an heirloom rose.  And gosh were they wild, tree like, some were vines, many towered as high as a yew.

The art gallery was a mixed bag.  One show, British Linocuts from the Jazz Age seemed both weirdly specific and art-nerd esoteric.  But it was in fact weirdly engaging in its esoterica.

And then there were some modern galleries of, well, mixed media.  Like really mixed.  Maybe mixed up.

There was a video installation of five running men: Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones; Tom Hanks as Forrest Gump; Daniel Craig as James Bond in Skyfall; Tom Cruise in Vanilla Sky; and those four anchored by Cary Grant in North by Northwest.  It was oddly engaging.  Here’s a video sample.

For dinner we lucked upon an Asian fusion place called Zodiac.  Their patio faced the river.  So, on a lovely late summer’s evening, on the patio, with the sun setting and a view of the Avon, we took a delectable supper of gyoza and baos, curry and salad.