Day 23 - Akaroa & Christchurch

Wednesday 27 Apr

Driving through the suburb of Halswell, I saw a sign advertising the ‘Lych-gate Health and Wellness Centre’ but was not quick enough to get a photo. Considering that lych-gates were where coffins rested while waiting for the minister to escort it to the grave, it seems a singularly inappropriate name. 

There were a couple of photo stops on the way to Akaroa, one just past the ‘Sign of the Takahe’, still closed for renovations after quake damage. Another at the Little River Railway Station, now a craft shop. We waved at my friend Kathy (not that she was in sight) as we passed  the local pub that she and her husband run.

On arrival at Akaroa we were free to wander for about 90 minutes before the bus collected us again. After admiring the stunning blue pearls grown in pauas (and very expensive), we wandered the length of the main street before separating. 

 

I can't resist a good library

I checked out the three old churches, Catholic St Patrick's, Presbyterian Trinity, and Anglican St Peter's.

St Patrick's Catholic Church

Next we drove to Lyttleton, and did a quick circuit of the town. The Lyttleton Tunnel is 1.3 km long, and has seven acres of white tiled walls. (I wonder how long it takes to do the cleaning!) Ellen kindly pointed out Coleridge St as we drove past (where my John William Barnes lived for a while), and we drove down Oxford St, where he also lived. Apart from that short burst of excitement, Lyttleton was a non-event, we did not stop or get out of the bus at all. 

Driving back to Christchurch we stopped at the cardboard cathedral, which was quite brilliant, and very moving. It was designed by a Japanese architect, Shigeru Ban, who had done something similar for a church in Kobe after their 1995 earthquake. Wikipedia has a fascinating article on him at 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shigeru_Ban

Irene and Gaewyn admiring the interior

The stained glass incorporates part of the Rose Window from the old Cathedral

 
Obviously this is the only cardboard Cathedral in the world, and was evidently one of the reasons that Lonely Planet Guide named Christchurch one of the most exciting places to visit. The walls are made of eight containers, and the roof has 86 cardboard tubes, weighing 500kg each. 


















Since the last tour stopped here just over a month ago, they have added two enormous wreaths, made of over 17,000 paper flowers, every one of which was hand-made. An artist from Amberley, just north of Christchurch, his wife and some of the locals, spent six months making the paper from rags and flax, shaping and drying the flowers, then putting it all together, as a gesture of sympathy and solidarity for Christchurch. 

A better view of the container walls

Many streets in Christchurch are closed for repair, and there are detours everywhere. Ellen sits with a map on her knee instead of her GPS, as she frequently needs to find a different route. We drove down one short by-street to go through to another main road, only to discover that the other end had become a one-lane, one –way track to a carpark, and we were facing the wrong way. It was a mark of the great teamwork that Wayne & Ellen displayed, she out in her high-vis jacket guiding, and him doing a very tight 23-point turn (or what seemed like it) to get back to our original road. No-one had seen any sign that the street had changed from a through-road when we turned into it. As the final turn was safely completed, Wayne got a well-deserved and very loud round of applause. 

At that point everyone was happy to give away the rest of the tour and just get back to the hotel, however even that took a while, with further detours and heavy traffic. Thank goodness for kindles!

This was our first evening having dinner here, and evidently it is very popular with the locals as well. We can now see why. The buffet features at least three different cuisines, and has a large selection of dishes for each. It stretches on forever! For dessert there were two hot dishes with custard, and at least a dozen cold selections. The coffee table had cheese and crackers available, and altogether it was an amazing feast.