Christchuch - More English than the English

Woke up to a rather gloomy morning. After breakfast we followed through with our plan of taking the old tram around its loop so that we could orientate ourselves. Marion sat on the same seat that the Queen did in 1995. She asked me if “I had come far”. We did the full loop and then got off at the arts centre. There were some nice little studio shops there and we had a coffee before crossing to the museum. We had a look around there, having had our interest in Christchurch’s history tickled by a bit in one of our guidebooks that said the founder’s aim when he came was to establish a kind of utopian Anglican (and we guess white middle class) society. There were some very interesting exhibits that basically showed this is exactly what happened as well giving the Maori history – there were no wars with the Maoris in the south and we speculated that this was probably one of the least hostile environments for those earlier settlers. (compared, say with the American West). Then we went to the Botanical gardens and took the Caterpillar (a very slow electric land train) around the gardens. There was an excellent commentary but we were seeing the fag end of the summer displays. It occurred to me that quite a lot of the plants that are popular in England at the moment are New Zealand natives. I think I mentioned before that agapanthus and ligulas seem to grow wild here. Also saw those nice black grasses that mum and dad have.
We went onto the tram loop again and found a café for lunch – I tried the speciality sandwich which, rather oddly, appeared to be a whitebait omelette sandwich!! We then went into the cathedral (nothing particularly special except that the architect was the same as St Pancras station). As it was starting to rain and I was feeling a bit tired I went back to the hotel room for a read while Nigel went to take a photo of Captain Cook’s statue and the bar where Ben worked during his time in New Zealand, disappointed that there in no plaque or Colchester United scarf. This man (Captain Cook not Ben) is becoming my historical hero – his mapping of New Zealand – and I guess everywhere else he went- is absolutely extraordinary
It has stopped raining and we are going out for something to eat – Mexican tonight. And an excellent Mexican it was, burritos etc…
Christchurch is a very manageable city and is very familiar in an English sort of way. Some things are even exaggerated English. For instance some of the school uniforms really exaggerate the style. Vertical striped blazers with horizontal striped ties and shorts for teenage boys. Also rather like the sons & daughters of the revolution there seems to be a lot of cachet to being a descendent of one of the families who emigrated on one of the original four ships