Off to the South Island! First Stop – Christchurch

Sunday morning we flew into Christchurch, the South Island’s largest city and I fell in love as soon as I arrived; it was quaint, charming, and picturesque. There is a distinct English flair to the city with its traditional British architecture. More obvious, however, were the blatant British names of some of Christchurch’s locales i.e. Avon River, Canterbury County, Cambridge Street (the British weren’t very good at coming up with original names for its colonial cities). Anyway, that afternoon we walked around the city, took a trolley ride through downtown, and went shopping in the town center’s open-air market. We even went punting on the Avon. No, it did not involve sports of any kind; rather punting in New Zealand is another term for gondola ride (as made famous in Venice). My friends and I took a leisurely boat ride down the Avon River but since there were so many of us on the boat (eight), our rower became a bit tired and at times we sat still on the water for a few moments as he took a few breathers. The whole thing was amusing to say the least but we tipped him well as a gesture of gratitude for his strength!