12th December
Happy Birthday Dad!
We’ve spent quite a bit of time driving around Christchurch between picking up the campervan over two weeks ago, then arriving back Thursday night and dropping the van back on Friday, but we haven’t really had the opportunity to explore the city itself.
Our hostel is just a short walk from Hagley Park and the Botanic Gardens, so this seemed like the ideal place to start our wanderings. It was a beautiful day with clear blue skies and we thoroughly enjoyed strolling through the gardens which in parts seemed more like a large park with wide open areas as well as the formal gardens such as the rose garden.
There were also greenhouses which contained a variety of tropical plants and also a wonderful display of pointsettas (very Christmassy!) and busy lizzies.
The path leading from the gardens blends seamlessly into the plaza in front of the Canterbury Museum, but it was far too nice a day to be inside so we continued onto the Arts Centre. This is a unique complex which promotes the growth of Arts and Crafts in Christchurch. A vibrant and exciting venue for a huge range of New Zealand made art and crafts, shopping, education and entertainment, the gothic buildings were originally home to the University of Canterbury.
Stopping off at the food market to buy some souvlaki wrapped in a pitta bread for lunch, we wandered through the arts and crafts market surrounding the buildings. There were many stalls with fascinating crafts along with street performers creating a relaxing, festive mood.
Our next destination was Cathedral Square, directly in front of ChristChurch Cathedral. When we arrived, a young group of Maori performers was just finishing off a street performance and there was another craft market here.
Since the year 2000, The Chalice, a large piece of modern sculpture in the form of an inverted cone, has stood in the square subverting the shape of the spire that rises above the cathedral.
We couldn’t really not visit the Cathedral, but just as we were going in we noticed that there was something going on inside. Undeterred, we entered anyway and stood with the other tourists watching some sort of rehersal by a men’s choir, not really understanding what was going on.
We sat for a spell while various choirs and quartets sang carols before one of the choristors came and explained that at 2pm they would be doing a full dress rehearsal for a carol concert that was taking place at the Cathedral later that evening and we were welcome to stay and watch.
What a treat! The Canterbury Plainsmen who were the main choir entertained us for over two hours with traditional carols and modern arrangements ringing out through the beautiful cathedral. They were accompanied by a couple of quartets and a mixed choir who put the Cathedral’s wonderful acoustics to good use. It was slightly bizarre however listening to them sing about snow and dark evenings while the sun blazed through the cathedral’s stained glass windows.
The ‘headline’ act for the evening was to be a young capella quartet originally from the Pacific Islands who formed in Wellington, the Musical Island Boys. Bursting onto the stage with a high-energy performance, they certainly made their mark. They were hugely talented and entertaining with soaring harmonies.
A great concert even if it was a dress rehearsal there were very few stoppages and a lovely setting for it. It has certainly been a day of unforeseen treats in terms of culture, the arts and music and made our ‘stroll’ around Christchurch quite unforgettable.
We walked back to the hostel via the city’s Bridge of Remembrance and Victoria Park with its statues of Queen Vic and Cook together with a Maori sculpture and floral clock.
