I'm Back! NZ trip Days 1 and 2 - Christchurch

Sorry about the long silence. We went to New Zealand for a computer-free holiday and when we came back - no internet at home! Modem was apparently fried in a thunderstorm that happened while we were away. Replacement installed yesterday. What a relief. How dependent we have become on the internet, it's like a drug! I was able do some internet things on the smart phone but blogging is just too hard by phone. So now, I will do a post every day until I've caught up.

Here's Day 1 and 2 of our New Zealand trip.

Historic site in New Zealand? Nup. For the record, this was our start point: Taree Station. The start of a scenic 5 hour trip to Central Station in Sydney, past paddocks browner than I had ever seen them in this area.

From Central Station to the salubrious surrounds of the Sydney International Airport - having left the part where you drink coffee from a cardboard cup standing outside Subway, and passed into the world of Gucci, Prada and black leather lounges where you sip espresso from a stylish little red cup. International travel supports a disturbing caste system based on money.

Business Class or Economy - you hurtle through the same freezing air in the same tin can at the same lethal speed with a long way to fall. But we were cheerily assisted to enjoy our flight by a gentleman named "Phullup" who welcomed us to his home country New Zillund just before midnight. Then the shuttle driver, similarly cheery, delivered us to our hire car along with lots of advice about what to see and do. Thank goodness we had brought our navigator and thank goodness it worked. Reached the motel and fell into that big bed giggling about the very idea that we were actually in Another Country! First overseas trip in more than 30 years.

Day 2 - sunshine, blue skies. Apparently this is not common in NZ. But we had nothing but warmth and sunshine for our entire 2 weeks there. (Meanwhile back home in Diamond Beach, the clouds gathered and it rained heavily for the first time in months. Lucky.) Had a big cafe breakfast and then went to a mall with wifi to make unsuccessful attempts to get on the Telstra and find out what on earth they had done to our useless phones (instead of what they had promised to do). David eventually managed to sort it out later by writing texts to a help desk via Facebook on his ipad. Good one, Telstra. First outing - Christchurch Botanic Gardens. Christchurch is NZ South Island's major city and what a pretty place it is, notwithstanding the earthquake damage. The whole city is a garden. And, it is Spring, my favourite season.

Soft, soft green, green grass. With English daisies. Even the weeds in NZ's countryside are benign - pretty yellow broom and gorse, hollyhocks, lupins, daisies.

Big, fat, tame mallards.

This one is a native species - a paradise shelduck.

The gardens are located inside a looping curve of the Avon River - clear as glass the water was. Such an English scene - you can even punt on this little river.

Another big, fat, sleepy mallard.

The gardens were lovely in an English country garden style. The mollis azaleas and rhododendrons were at their peak.

Here we saw our first example of earthquake damage. First of many, many everywhere in this damaged city. Sadly, it was the old stone buildings, the history of the place, that suffered the most.

(Above) This became a very familiar sign.

White wisteria outside the lovely old glass conservatories, which remain closed.

There is debate about which buildings to repair and which to demolish. This is the Arts Centre, on the edges of the devastated CBD. It is being restored.

Canterbury Museum, next to the Botanic Gardens, had a great collection of Maori artifacts. These were described as "bugle-flutes"

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There is a phenomenon called "Kiwiana"in which NZ celebrates its love of the most ghastly kitsch. This is "Fred and Myrtle's Paua House", an example of actual Kiwiana created by a real couple, whose house was gifted to the nation when they passed on.

There's nothing amusing about what remains of Christchurch's former heart, its CBD, which was the sector hardest hit by the earthquake in 2011.

A poster shows what the Cathedral used to look like.

The Cathedral now, spire and tower completely gone and unsafe to step inside.

 Demolition goes on, day and night. This is a hydraulic hammer, making a pounding, shuddering noise that went on and on. All through the CBD there were empty spaces where buildings used to be and other buildings with gaps and shattered parts. Chilling. Sad.

End of day 2 - our hire car Frodo on the carpark roof of the Pak'n'Store, with the Southern Alps in the distance. We stocked up on some food and got the hell out of Christchurch the following morning.