After a very long series of flights, many of which were unfortunately not on schedule, I arrived (2 days later with the time difference) in Christchurch for the second part of my winter vacation. It was warmish and mostly sunny! Opposite of when I left Canada. And I was quite happy as the forecast for Christchurch had been for rain for the time I was supposed to be there.
When I arrived at my hotel and went into my room, I found that they had given me a larger room than I had actually booked. Lucky! After dropping off my things, and changing into more weather appropriate clothing, I went to go explore and stretch my legs. I ended up coming across an international food truck market event that was happening, and there was also some live music going on. After that, I visited the information center, and then continued on to the botanical gardens, where I got some lovely sunshine. While I was wandering around in the city, I noticed there are still many buildings that are damaged from the earthquake in 2016. A lot of them are abandoned and graffitied, which gives some areas of the city a kind of ghost town feeling.
Lots of old buildings like this in Christchurch. This was home to the information center and some shops.
Just sleepin'...
So green
You could ride in a boat down the river if you so chose
So peaceful
Something we don't see so much of anymore...
I like this color
Memorial
Memorial in front of shopping area
The Christchurch tram
The next day, I took the bus out to the Christchurch gondola, and I got to see some absolutely amazing views, and did a little bit of walking as well, as they have some tracks around the the area. On the way back down the mountain, the attendant asked me where I was from, and when I said Canada, he tried to sing a little bit of our song. It was completely wrong but it was amusing. Both this day and the previous I didn't do so much in the late afternoon/evening for a couple of reasons. First, I was jet-lagged and got tired by 3 or 4, and second, it got quite cool with the wind and poured and poured from around 4 or 5 all through the night.
For my final day in Christchurch, I wasn't actually in Christchurch. I took a bus for about an hour and a half out to the coastal town of Akaroa. This area's main attraction is it's different type of dolphins that apparently live in the bay near where the town is, so there are many tour boats that take you out to see them. However, that being said, I did NOT go on a boat. I did the dolphin thing the last time that I was in New Zealand, and this time I wanted to do something different. Not to mention the weather was (according to the locals)-- winter-like. It wasn't even 15 and there was a strong wind off the water. I imagine it felt even colder if you were on a boat. What I did instead was a little bit of exploring. I went to the lighthouse, a forest path referred to as the "Garden of Tane" (recommended by the bus driver), a very odd place called the Giant's House, and then I went to go see the little (blue) penguins!
The Giant's House is this garden created by a horticulturist/artist, where there are all kinds of weird and interesting mosaic creations. Look at the pictures. I don't know how to explain it.
The Giant's House itself
The best part of the day was definitely the penguins, although it was a somewhat different experience than what I was expecting. We drove to the location, Flea Bay (not the best name, I know), with a couple photo stops on the way, and along the way we learned a lot about the penguins and the area, and where they live, how they act and all sorts of interesting things. Did you know these particular penguins dig holes to nest in? Well, apparently they prefer to steal or find pre-made holes, or nest underneath of things like houses, kayaks, and so on. And they can go quite far away from the water to do so. Apparently the strongest ones get the spots closest to the water, and the weaker ones have to go farther away.
Views from the road
This and the one above: The bright blue is the Pacific Ocean
View of Flea Bay
Penguin hole...
Once we got to the bay/farm, our guide fed the sheep (and let us help) so that they wouldn't bother us later. Then we went in the yard, where they were keeping the penguin chicks that they rescued and were waiting to release back into the wild. They fed the chicks (and that was how we got to see them. Apparently at 8 weeks they are the size of an adult and should be ready to be released back into the water. And we were also told it's better if they try to bite the people (so they're strong and independent), and around 8 weeks they should stop wanting to be fed (they're ready to go out on their own).
8 week old (adult size): was getting released that night...
When we visited one of the nesting boxes, we saw two little 3-4 week old chicks. There were no adults around, because at that age the parents can leave them on their own while they are out getting food. From what we were told, from when they hatch to about 3 weeks, one parent always stays with the chicks and looks after them, but at 3-4 weeks, both parents go out to the water before the sun rises, and come back when it's dark to regurgitate and feed the chicks for 2-3 hours before going back out to the ocean. I also found out that this type of penguin usually have two chicks an A and a B. The B is apparently the spare, and survival rate of chicks is around 50%. I learned all of this and more!
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