AmyHuang
Fancy a visit to Christchurch?
I thought I might as well keep to the New Zealand theme this week, and have decided to take you guys to Christchurch.
I arrived in Christchurch in style, with sniffer dog right onto my hand luggage like it’s pack full of dog food, and the ever so friendly custom officers politely asking me to show him my bag. Have I ever mentioned that New Zealand airport custom officers are one of the most polite in the world?
Lost and confused as I was, I handed over my bag and thought to myself – if anything that is not suppose to be in that bag appears out of no where, I am blaming the Qantas baggage handlers.
To my relief, there was nothing of suspicious material, just a strong stench of rotten apples.
“Sorry madam, the dog must have thought you had fresh fruit in your luggage” he carefully zips up the bag and hands it back to me “hope you have a good day and welcome to New Zealand!”
So it was the home packed apples which I had consumed on the plane were to blame.
Christchurch, unlike the bold and adventurous city Queenstown, is quaint. It is not called the garden city for nothing. Parks and gardens surround the city centre, and when there are no room for grass, there are pot plants. The large Hagley Park in the city centre is a great place to sit in the sun to read or a short snooze, or visit its Botanic Gardens in spring to enjoy the vibrant colours and scent from the blooms. If you are like me who simply love to romanticise things, take a stroll along the Avon, feed the ducks, smile at passer bys and sit in a riverside café to soak in the atmosphere.
As for sights and attractions, you can start at the Cathedral Square, where the cathedral stands looking extremely English. Well, it was in fact modelled according to the Christ Church in Oxford and was intended to be the beacon for the city that was built around it. Easy to see where the name Christchurch came from. You can pay to climb up the spirals for a nice view of the extended city.
Whether you are into military or arts, Christchurch has a museum to entertain. There is however, one must visit ‘museum’ – the Antarctic Centre.
Christchurch prides itself as one of the gateways to the Antarctic, and is closely associated with Antarctic research of the USA, Italy and New Zealand. A place to learn all about the freezing continent and its developments, as well as have some fun pretending to hike out to the Antarctic when a snow storm hits! A room set up to replicate a standard base camp in the Antarctic with man-made ice and snow and temperature brought down to minus 5. Every twenty-minute is set to have a snow storm to allow the visitors to experience what it would be like to have to work on the Antarctic. Little did I know they were for real; temperature dropped right down to minus 40 and I huddled in the corner beside a snow dome praying the four minutes storm to be over. Geez, talk about realistic imitations. Well, now I know.
If you fancy wildlife, and are also intrigued about the fluff with the stick, (aka the Kiwi bird) head over to the Willowbank Wildlife Reserve - http://www.willowbank.co.nz/ - Does anyone else think that when God invented the southern Hemisphere he might have been slightly under the influence? Kiwis will have to add to the list of weird animals along with our platypus and koalas. They don’t look like anything, not even other birds. Kiwis have no wings, and sort of looks like furballs on a stick, sideways. They are cute though, and I do like them, just somehow when nature produces lives of oddly shape, it all happens down under. Besides the kiwis, this wildlife reserve also have other native animals as well as visit Kao Tane, a Maori cultural experience located in the reserve where the native culture comes to live and you are invited to witness their greetings, dances and taste their cuisine.
Other than these major attractions, you can also catch a cruise out to view whales and dolphins, as well as shop your hearts out in the many shopping joints and markets Christchurch has to offer.
I arrived in Christchurch in style, with sniffer dog right onto my hand luggage like it’s pack full of dog food, and the ever so friendly custom officers politely asking me to show him my bag. Have I ever mentioned that New Zealand airport custom officers are one of the most polite in the world?
Lost and confused as I was, I handed over my bag and thought to myself – if anything that is not suppose to be in that bag appears out of no where, I am blaming the Qantas baggage handlers.
To my relief, there was nothing of suspicious material, just a strong stench of rotten apples.
“Sorry madam, the dog must have thought you had fresh fruit in your luggage” he carefully zips up the bag and hands it back to me “hope you have a good day and welcome to New Zealand!”
So it was the home packed apples which I had consumed on the plane were to blame.
Christchurch, unlike the bold and adventurous city Queenstown, is quaint. It is not called the garden city for nothing. Parks and gardens surround the city centre, and when there are no room for grass, there are pot plants. The large Hagley Park in the city centre is a great place to sit in the sun to read or a short snooze, or visit its Botanic Gardens in spring to enjoy the vibrant colours and scent from the blooms. If you are like me who simply love to romanticise things, take a stroll along the Avon, feed the ducks, smile at passer bys and sit in a riverside café to soak in the atmosphere.
As for sights and attractions, you can start at the Cathedral Square, where the cathedral stands looking extremely English. Well, it was in fact modelled according to the Christ Church in Oxford and was intended to be the beacon for the city that was built around it. Easy to see where the name Christchurch came from. You can pay to climb up the spirals for a nice view of the extended city.
Whether you are into military or arts, Christchurch has a museum to entertain. There is however, one must visit ‘museum’ – the Antarctic Centre.
Christchurch prides itself as one of the gateways to the Antarctic, and is closely associated with Antarctic research of the USA, Italy and New Zealand. A place to learn all about the freezing continent and its developments, as well as have some fun pretending to hike out to the Antarctic when a snow storm hits! A room set up to replicate a standard base camp in the Antarctic with man-made ice and snow and temperature brought down to minus 5. Every twenty-minute is set to have a snow storm to allow the visitors to experience what it would be like to have to work on the Antarctic. Little did I know they were for real; temperature dropped right down to minus 40 and I huddled in the corner beside a snow dome praying the four minutes storm to be over. Geez, talk about realistic imitations. Well, now I know.
If you fancy wildlife, and are also intrigued about the fluff with the stick, (aka the Kiwi bird) head over to the Willowbank Wildlife Reserve - http://www.willowbank.co.nz/ - Does anyone else think that when God invented the southern Hemisphere he might have been slightly under the influence? Kiwis will have to add to the list of weird animals along with our platypus and koalas. They don’t look like anything, not even other birds. Kiwis have no wings, and sort of looks like furballs on a stick, sideways. They are cute though, and I do like them, just somehow when nature produces lives of oddly shape, it all happens down under. Besides the kiwis, this wildlife reserve also have other native animals as well as visit Kao Tane, a Maori cultural experience located in the reserve where the native culture comes to live and you are invited to witness their greetings, dances and taste their cuisine.
Other than these major attractions, you can also catch a cruise out to view whales and dolphins, as well as shop your hearts out in the many shopping joints and markets Christchurch has to offer.
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