My computer is giving me no end of trouble trying to insert my photos in my posts. I select and export my chosen photos to a folder and they act like they are processing but are not where I can find them. I am so far behind on posting that I am going to post without photos and add them later if I can find them. ARGGGGH! FOUND!!!
We had a fairly leisurely morning and left the hotel at 9:30 to make our way to the Rotorura Airport. On the way, we stopped at a redwood forest. Many years ago, the forestry industry experimented with many different kinds of trees to see what would be the most commercially useful. Redwoods grew well, but quite slowly compared to other varieties. They decided to keep the redwood forest and made it into a public park. The main difference we saw from the redwoods in California was that there weren't any little trees growing at the base of the big trees and no clusters of trees growing up around the 'mom' tree.
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Statues carved from redwood
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There is no airport security for internal flights, so we didn't have to segregate toiletries. The one serious limit was a max of 15 lbs for a carry on and a smaller than usual size, which we were prepared for. They didn't actually weigh our carry-ons and Rod had said they don't check the weight of the personal item, so all my electronics were stuffed into my small day bag and probably weighed another 15 lbs. The landing was as scary as any I have had in a long time. Apparently we ran into very windy conditions and the pilots earned their keep trying to keep us aloft long enough to land. Even after landing, we were slewing around. I have never been so glad to get off a plane.
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Flying conditions were hazy and my photo
software was only able to improve it a bit.
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Approaching Christchurch
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Our hotel is in the city center and Sandy and I were originally given one king bed. After we got that fixed, we had to rush to meet up for our walk and tram tour around the central city.
Even 12 years after the horrible earthquake here, there is still a lot of evidence of the damage: some buildings are being rebuilt, many have been torn down and are now empty lots (some of the lots are now park-like), and there are many graffiti-ed buildings that look fine on the outside but apparently too damaged inside for use and are still standing while insurance arguments continue. There are also a lot of new buildings and our hotel is one of them. The city is focused on bringing more residents into the city so there are a ton of apartments and townhouses too.
Our tram tour looped around the downtown area once every 50 minutes and can be used as a hop-on hop-off vehicle, though we started so late that we just stayed on. It was a good overview of the things that are still beautiful and the ones that are works in progress.
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It's cherry blossom time here
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The Avon River
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Queen Victoria
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The city has encouraged painting murals on building yet
to be demolished
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Memorial to fallen WWI soldiers
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We had dinner at an Irish pub called the Little Fiddle and then walked back to the hotel to finish unpacking.
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We also stopped for an ice cream. YUM!!
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This is not what it seems - all paint, not real windows.
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