Exploring Christchurch
We arrived in Christchurch in the evening of Day 7 and dropped off our rental car. Our friends Wendy & Rob met us at the car rental agency and took us back to their place where we would be spending the next 3 nights. Rob took us downtown and we started exploring Christchurch through a local’s eyes. He showed us a lot of the earthquake affected areas and derelict buildings in the downtown core. It was eerie driving around a fairly active downtown (it was a Friday evening) and seeing so many empty buildings.
After checking out the downtown area, we went back to their place had a few glasses of wine and got some good catching up in.
On Day 8, we slept in (which was glorious) and had a chill day around the house. We ventured out to North Hagley park in the afternoon. Its a massive park only about a 15 minute walk from our friends’ house. We spent a couple of hours just walking around, enjoying the sunshine and the park.
Our friends had planned a BBQ at their place in the evening for dinner. We met a bunch of their work friends – most of whom are originally from the UK. It was a lovely evening to sit out in the yard and eat some burgers and sausages. We managed to stay outside well into the evening, but eventually the mosquitoes started to attack so we moved the party inside.
On Day 9, we joined Wendy, Rob, Wendy’s daughter and grandson on a trip to Sumner Beach. It was really nice exploring Christchurch with friends who lived in the city and knew all the good spots to visit. Sumner beach was a fantastic spot. A massive beach with a tonne of sand and great water access.
In the evening we felt like some thai food so we made our way over to The Thai Container and had some fantastic Thai food. After getting our bellies full, we made our way back to Wendy & Rob’s place and had a nice easy final night in Christchurch.
You can see the rest of our trip here:
