Christchurch Re-cap

Warning, this post is a little picture heavy and may take some time to load... bear with me! I think it's worth it!

Hotel So - a small yet gorgeous hotel right in the Christchurch CBD and where we stayed for our sojourn. Arrived there early in the morning and we were able to check in straight away, thanks to a hotel staff member we soon nicknamed superhappyexcitedgirl :D No one should be that perky before nine in the morning. She may have even used the phrase "lovelyjubbly".

The Christ Church Cathedral - one of the most famous landmarks in Christchurch. In the top left of the photo you can see a tower - we climbed that sucker, baby!

Just one of the beautiful examples of artwork within the cathedral - the interior design could have been a blog post in itself!

Told you we climbed it! However we weren't about to fall prey to the tourist trap of buying 2 $2 pieces of paper :D Those steps were steep and disorientating but it was still fun!

The foyer of the Christchurch Art Gallery as seen from the first floor - definitely worth a visit just for the architecture. The collections themselves were the icing on top of the cupcake!

And now the reason for PianoMan's moniker change to Stunning Buns. It is in honour of this eating establishment (which to be fair, the food was fantastic at) and our holiday that he now wishes to be known as StunningBuns or SB for short. Look at that sign, the curved line even looks like a bottom!

Punting on the Avon River - divine, romantic and historically quite interesting... even though Andrea's LOML told us that he used to make up historical facts when he was a punter!

New Regent Street - on the historical tram route, I just found the colours and the vibe of this street generally quite amazing. Christchurch is such a mixing pot of design styles!

Akaroa - the only French settlement in NZ. Having been there last summer, I was amazed at how deserted it was in winter... it did however give me the opportunity to walk around more slowly and take pictures of tiny old cottages like this one. SB and I couldn't conceive of living in something that small, yet people did (and by the look of it, still do!).

Akaroa Harbour as we were leaving - the foggy weather meant that we couldn't get some of the more spectacular landscape views from the summit but I still think that this looks gorgeous.

We drove through the Lyttleton Harbour tunnel and around the harbour heads to Sumner (the head of the harbour you can see to the left of the pic). The roads were fairly narrow with sheer drops off one side - picturesque but scary in a large Holden rental car!

View of Christchurch from the top of the Port Hills - it isn't until you get this perspective that you realise how vast the city is. As tourists you only explore a small part of the area and tend to forget about outlying suburbs. It isn't as big as Auckland of course, but the laidback feeling you get here is quite appealing!

My intrepid SB continuing to take photos while I seek refuge in the rental car!

The view of Lyttleton Harbour from the top of the gondola station - such a cute little township nestled into the hill like that!

Our last touristy thing before StunningBuns had to catch his earlier flight back (damn jobs, work and general reality!) was the New Brighton pier. I'd wanted to walk the pier back in summer but my cousin had brought her dog with her and there were no dogs allowed. SB cajoled me to walk the length of the pier with him (that is the shoreline and the local library in the distant background) and while I whined and complained, I'm glad he made me do it! Certainly blew the cobwebs out :D

Some of these ladies may be familiar to you - others maybe not so much. I had the absolute pleasure of chatting about life, the universe and everything with these three gorgeous lady bloggers. It was great to make better friends with Andrea, Bridey and Charlie - plus the food at Chinwag Eathai was divine! Definitely worth another visit.

So that's a recap of some highlights of my Christchurch stay - also love Yellow Rocket bagels for breakfast, vintage shopping with Andrea, mood lighting in our hotel shower, laughing at the huge population of emos, Coffee Culture Vanilla Chai, corgi statues, sprinting down a museum hall in a dress and boots (part of a human body exhibition - measuring how fast you run), snuggling and watching movies and having some relaxing time out of AKL. Thanks for reading!