Canterbury Tales

(cause see, I'm in the province of Canterbury - get it!)

Arrived in Christchurch yesterday after a quick plane hop. Had a window seat so I got to see a lot of New Zealand from up above, and I really got the idea of how rugged much of the countryside is. Auckland was pretty hilly, but nothing compared to the mountains I was flying over. made me realize I'm going to have to visit Aoraka/Mt. Cook (the highest peak in NZ, clocking in at over 3700 m) at some point in this journey.

I arrived in Christchurch around 4 in the afternoon, and - wow. This city has completely charmed me. The place was laid out by Oxford scholars, and, you know, they were smart dudes. The place is beautiful - gothic church buildings everywhere, many no longer functioning as churches, but instead government buildings (no separation of church and state here! ;) ) and cafes and such. The river Avon snakes through the city, and people are kayaking through it and punting. There's a tram that goes in a square around the city, past my hostel, which is pretty nice.

And then there's the Botanic Garden. The Botanic Garden completely kicks ass, and in my own opinion puts every urban park I've ever seen to shame (including Prospect Park, Golden Gate Park, etc.) in terms of pure natural beauty. Christchurch calls itself the City of Flowers, and for good reason. I've spent maybe 5 or 6 hours of the 24 hours I've been here wandering through it, getting lost in it. It seems to contain almost every type of plant on earth.* Western trees coexist with NZ native plantlife, and could be a nice metaphor for NZ itself. Yeah, why not. It's a metaphor. Anyway, I've never really given much of a flying fig about botany, but after seeing this place, I want to buy a pack of fig newtons and start pelting people with them. I've taken a bunch of pictures and will put them on Facebook or Flickr maybe tonight.

Debating what to do now...I was going to buy a used car at the backpackers car market but have gotten some cold feet as I realized I've never actually bought a car in my life and also know next to nothing about cars. I will probably have to do it at some point, so may suck it up and just go. Or maybe will go to the Arts Centre or Canterbury Museum across the street. It's my last day here before I go to the farm (out in the suburbs of CC), so could always wait a week and come back. There's a lot here I'm going to not be able to see before tomorrow.

* - may be hyperbole.