Christchurch Akaora &

After a good flight from Sydney aboard a double decker airplane we landed at Christchurch in New Zealand. The flight was great but I have one regret and that is I did not have my camera handy upon take off to take pictures of Sydney from the air as we left. The ground was so clear you could see the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera house as well as the surrounding area.
The first night we went for a walk in downtown Christchurch The River Avon runs through it and makes for nice photos despite the fading light. Christchurch, unfortunately is still recovering from the major earthquake of 2011. It damaged many buildings including the cathedral and many still remain in disrepair. One hundred and eighty five people perished in the quake.

                                                              A beautiful black swan.

You will notice that my photos are a little out of order. That is because we are now uploading them as they appear on the camera as this is a much quicker way to get them downloaded. Some hotels have very slow internet and the downloading can take for ever.

                                                              Beautiful spring flowers.

I thought the sign below was interesting - no alcohol allowed in the City Centre. I think other cities should follow suit.

                                        One of the main streets was deserted at 6:30pm at night.

I just had to visit the Christchurch Botanical Gardens. They were quite spectacular and the rhododendrons were unbelievable. I have never seen such tall and colourful specimens.

Look, an English Blackbird. I heard him before I saw him. He has such a distinctive song which reminds me of my home in England.

Look at the colour of this azalea.

                                                             Momma with her chicks.

Here is an example of the rhododendron I was telling you about previously.

The following is a photo of a Monkey Puzzle Tree so named because it is supposed to be the only tree a monkey cannot climb. When we moved to the U.S. 39 years ago, Gary wanted one of these after seeing them in England. The only place we could get one from was Florida and we were told that weather in Maryland was too cold for them.

The following photos show some of the countryside.

The photo above shows a very large hedge in the middle of the photo. These are all over the south part of the island and very often stuck in the middle of a field for no apparent reason. We thought they might be wind breakers but we are not sure.

The following photo shows a hotel with rooms made out of silos. Quite corny, don't you think!!!

A beautiful old Rolls Royce

The following photo taken on the road to Akaroa minds me of the chalets at Scarborough in Yorkshire.

The town of Akaroa was founded by French settlers in August of 1840.

I have not seen many sheep since our arrival in New Zealand. I did spot the two below which made for a nice photo.

On the way back to our hotel we came upon this "dust storm". It turned out to be swarms of insects and the sunlight reflecting through them.

More countryside photos.

The photo below surprised me as Calla Lilies were growing wild alongside the road.

We decided to pay a visit to a sheep sheering demonstration. There were two of the cutest lambs I have ever seen and we got to bottle feed them.

The farmer had to go and find his dog on his four wheeler.

Gary, bottle feeding a lamb.

Pete, the farmer is wearing sheep shearing garb. He is wearing wool slippers but I forget why they wear them.

This was not the animal to be sheared!!

This breed of sheep is sheared every six months and the wool used to make carpets. Below is six months growth.

Below is the finished product.

Pete told us that the money farmers get for wool is very poor. For the type of wool his sheep give he can get 1-2 New Zealand dollars per kilo. The wool from Marino sheep (Australian) can fetch up to 20 dollars a kilo. Because of this a lot of sheep farmers are now raising cattle instead of sheep.

Of course, I had to act the goat or should I say the sheep with a pair of horns and a wool wig!!!