Time-out

We recently spent a couple of days in Christchurch. Why? Because we can, and I found cheap airfares!
Anyway, we stayed in the Hotel So, in Cashel Street. It is a new and trendy place, with a dinky little car outside as an advertising gimmick.

The rooms all have 'mood' lighting, and ours was completely interior, with no outside window! It did have a mirror across one wall and behind the door, so the image repeated to infinity was possible.


We didn't have a car, so we walked, and fortunately, we were close to a very nice restaurant zone, the Avon, the Square, and just a few blocks from the Arts Centre, Museum, and Art Gallery - what more could you want?

Roger Duff is a distant relation of Desiree's - related to the Edie clan
















The Venetian-style building lit at night

We had forgotten how attractive, and old, some of the buildings are:

Apparently, Venetian in style!





This frontage, while it has been preserved, seems now an oddity







I like the patterns able to be built into tiled roofs - this is the roof of the Catherdral in the Square

Street-scenes:

Desiree was very taken with these planter boxes



Statues outside the Bangalore Polo Club restaurant



and the motto above the door!



Looking back from the Avon towards the Square





The entrance to the new Council Building, still under construction



A waterwheel beside 'Mill Island' in the Avon

These two were promoting a 'Festival of Flowers'

In this area of the City there are also a number of impressive pieces of sculpture:

This piece was just around the corner from the Hotel, and was lit up at night:











Not all of the sculptures are modern - this statue is of Scott of the Antarctic


and it still attracts floral tributes!

We also stumbled across the Kate Sheppard National Memorial, beside the Avon. It is an impressive bronze array, unfortunately sheltered by trees so it isn't especially well lit.

On the final morning we decided to go punting on the Avon. This is easier than it sounds, after all, we just paid someone else to do the hard work! Turns out the river is a little low at present, and several times we struck the bottom. On the return trip, upstream our young (German) punter struggled with the flow of the current.

I was very taken by how accepting the ducks were - they paid us no real attention at all!












The bridges in this part of town all have wrought iron fretwork sides, and each has a different pattern