A bus ride to town

After sleeping for over 12 hours, we ventured out and discovered a fabulous 

coffee shop - Coffee Club, they prepared the best coffee that I have tried, sofar, in New Zealand, nay not just here but in UK, except for my own of course. 


We got chatting to the really helpful guy behind the espresso machine, he gave us some good info on how we can venture into Christchurch on public transport.   So after a hearty breakfast and more coffee, I hasten to add, we picked up our cameras and went in search of the Purple Bus and ventured into Christchurch.

First stop was the botanical gardens, and it was quite amazing as we got off the bus to hear nothing but the song of the cicadas, which was very loud. Although it kinda added to the atmosphere.In competition with the cicadas was the residential band playing a merry tune...and so we stopped and listened for a while, be a bit rude not too...                                                                                     

It seemed a very civilised thing to do on a Sunday morning and it sort of whisked you back to a bygone era to the days of no internet or mobile phones (Please note not one person was looking at their phone).  

The gardens were a delight to venture around and we had the most wonderful delight of seeing Monarch butterflies, which seem to be quite common in the gardens. 

Before we knew we had soon hit the city streets of Christchurch. Now I was expecting a bustling busy city, but also no, it was relatively quiet and very few cars, although there were a few trams that did city tours. 

There was one tram that had children’s buggies on the front...so kids don’t cry otherwise you will be riding up front, literally.....

What was very noticeable was the damage done in the 2011 earthquake and they are still repairing parts of Christchurch. One cannot imagine what it is 

like to live through such a catastrophic and terrible disaster as that. The church is still in ruins and they created a container mall after the event. They were going to remove this, but the locals insisted it stays as a reminder of what they had to do to survive.

The locals still worry if this will happen again, but they don’t let it stop them from relaxing in the park on a warm sunny afternoon.