Christchurch Sunday 12 Mar

 

dawn, coming into the port of Lyttleton

Sun just reaching the hilltops as we backed into Lyttleton

We saw a new way of handling lines:  They drop them to the RHIB, and they attached a line that was hooked to a remote control winch.  A guy ashore controls it all on his compiuter pad.  

We headed on into Cristchurch, about a 20-minute ride inland.  We wanted to use the tram as our sightseeing tour, but only one of the 5 trams in service was set up for handicap.  (They have recycled old tram cars from other cities... the one we rode was from Sydney.)  They directed us to go to the tram house where there was a lift that could get Scott onto any tram.

kiwi clock in the tram house

Scott is sitting on the 4x4 lift.  What they did was pull the tram alongside him and raise him up about to the level of the metal behind him.  They then locked in a ramp from the lift to the tram, and VOILA! he's aboard.

We were so busy doing it, I didn't have time to take a picture.

We went around the city. seeing some of the destruction from the 2010 earthquake.  Some of the buildings are being worked on (like the cathedral, which might be finished in 2026), and some have to wait for funding and experts (like the stone masons who are working on the cathedral).  It is a city of old and new, existing side by side.

Art Museum (their collection is still in the basement
while they renovate the building - this is the Sunday Market

statue to Scott - British Explorer
who perished returning from the South Pole

some of the new buildings

mural on side of hotel

the refectory (dining room) at Christ College, the oldest school in NZ

statue in front of brand-new convention center

Avon River, runs for 27 miles through Christchurch
(that's a statue, not a fisherman)

Scott had tried for several years to get assigned to the US Navy detachment that supports the polar reasearch, Operation Deep Freeze.  We found a plaque for it.

When we got back to the ship, the entire harbor was filled with boats... hobi-cats were running a series of races, guys were on their mechanical surfboards, pleasure craft our for an afternoon sail, and fihermen all over.  We noticed a series of bleachers on the edge of the waterfront, and discovered the same sailboat racers we had seen in Sydney would be doing the NZ race next weekend.  

GP Sail headquarters

While out on the balcony we tried a new selfie (using the reflective window of our bathroom):