Left the RV in the camp and caught a bus downtown. Bus rides (at least to this near suburb's zone) are nz$2.80 one way. There are presumably day tickets and monthly passes that are cheaper.
Downtown Christchurch has a compact core that is threaded by the River Avon, upon which you can ride in a Cambridge-style punt.
The strip of cool green makes the central core seem very classy. Away from the river, the charm falls off rapidly. The outer parts are just typical small-city with quite a bit of traffic. But the center is beautiful.
We made first for the Botanical Garden which is a very nice one, and happened to be in the middle of chestnut, azalea, and rhododendron flowering season.
This has not been enhanced; the pixels are just as Nikon took 'em.
There was a class of terminally cute kids getting some kind of ecology lesson.
There were some humongously big trees which turned out to be... Monterey Cypress, Western Red Cedar, an Australian Eucalyptus, and this, a Sequoia Gigantea.
We did a few errands and then caught the bus home. Interesting arrangement for this: there is an enclosed building with a number of loading gates. All the bus lines run through this building. You sit inside and watch a screen that tells you which buses are approaching and how many minutes away they are. When the bus arrives, the screen tells you which gate it is pulling up at, and you hop up and go get on.
Tomorrow early we catch a tour coach for a day trip to Mt. Cook and back (It's a 12-hour trip, too far to drive ourselves). The weather service says it will be sunny over the whole country tomorrow, so fingers crossed, maybe we get Aoraki pictures finally.
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