On the weekends during the first few weeks at Christchurch, we just looked around the city on foot and checked out the impressive botanical gardens to the city’s west.
In the city itself, it’s like a bigger version of Dunedin and the highlight is of course the massive cathedral in the middle of town.
I can remember going into this cathedral about 10 years ago. I recall being totally blown away by the size of the church then. But now, since we have been in more churches in Wellington, Dunedin and other places it was not as impressive as I first remembered.
Also in Cathedral Square there was was new big sculpture that was commissioned in the year 2000. (yes that’s Fem at the base to give you a sense of scale)
Lyttelton
After spending a few weekends not doing a great deal, we both felt a little stir crazy. So on the weekend of the 11th of May, we drove out to the area around Lyttelton which is just south of Christchurch and did some exploring around there. The day was pretty good, although a tad cold!
To the east of Lyttelton is a peninsula with various walks. We decided to go on a hike on the far east one which takes us to some old WW2 army barracks.
After walking down the side of the mountain (We then wished we brought our hiking boots rather than just our sneakers!), there was a small tunnel about 100 metres long that we just to duck through. There was some natural light at certain points along the way, but there were some sections that were almost pitch black. Since this height was low I really have to watch where I was going!
Once we got to the bottom (muddy shoes and all!) there were the remains of two old gun turrents near the ocean.
By this stage some dark clouds starting rolling in from the south (see last photo above), so we decided to make a move back up. There was a local tramping club resting down near the turrents. They were a nice bunch of people so we hung out with them on the way back up the mountain. When we got to the top, we said goodbye to the trampers and we continued on the loop walk to see the rest of the military remains while keeping a close eye on the weather.
After walking up a steep hill we ended up at the Godley Battery compound. This was were they had three large artillery guns during the war. The remains of the base was open and interesting to see. They even had a lit up ammo room about 10 metres underground.
After checking out the site, we were glad the skies did not open up, we finally got back to Magnum, and set off the coastal town of Sumner for a late lunch.
Sumner is a pretty little place and we were impressed by a double rainbow that appeared after lunch. After a rest we then head back home, glad to have finally gone exploring again after so many weekends indoors!
