I've just about run out of photos, but I'll go ahead for the sake of completeness with one last post. On Saturday, we took our last drive back to Christchurch for our final day. There wasn't much to do here, we saw the Botanical Gardens which were closed due to the hurricane on our previous visit, had dinner at a Mexican restaurant, and lost some money at the casino. We decided against revisiting the George and stayed at the Park Royal, a very large hotel in the center of town that we'd almost always snub in favor of the boutique option. But in this case the big bland option won out, despite its atrium and wall to wall carpeting. On balance the George is the better hotel, but the room was just too depressing for our last day. Park Royal-(4) Room-4, Facilities-4, Service-3, Wow-0.

We then continued to our final destination, Akaroa. Akaroa was originally a French colony, and is marketed as an oasis of French culture, but this is long gone. What's left is a quiet seaside beach community. After some browsing among the tourist shops we headed back to Christchurch. We finished the day with a very good dinner at the hotel's restaurant, and got to bed early as we (really Somchai) had a long drive ahead of us.

We then walked around Hagley Park, but the bulk of it, the Botanical Gardens, was closed due to storm damage. We returned to the hotel and separated for our individual disappointing experiences. Somchai arranged for a massage. He wanted a male masseur but the woman on the phone was a bit offended, so he said he needed a very hard, strong massage. She said she'd see what she could do, which he thought meant find a male masseur, but a half hour later, Iron Ruth was at the door, (and gave such a hard massage that he still complains about it). I wanted to go to the gym, which the hotel doesn't have but the helpful concierge gave me a complimentary voucher to a gym in the city as well as directions. What he didn't get me, however, was opening hours, which don't include the weekend.

Sore Somchai and flabby Brian then went to dinner at Azure, one of a half dozen riverside restaurants and bars where all of Christchurch seems to be drinking. We got to see the locals decked out for a night out, which resembles the scene in a Northern English city, ladies with too much makeup and too short skirts and too high heels, guys dressed like slobs, wearing only t shirts and freezing. Also, all age groups seemed to hang out at these bars, and it was quite a happy scene overall. We returned to the hotel late, and I stayed up most of the night because the bed was marshmallow soft and there was a deluge of water pouring from the roof all night onto the balcony, although it hadn't rained for a couple of days.

In the afternoon we went to the Arts Centre, housed in the old Canterbury University campus, and now has a variety of galleries, shops, cafes and an outdoor market. There was some outdoor entertainment and we had a nice lunch at a wine bar named Annie's. Most importantly, the Arts Centre had people, something we hadn't seen so far in Christchurch.

Saturday we walked around Christchurch, which doesn't take very long. We had a good breakfast at the hotel, then spent a couple of hours in central Christchurch, where there are some nice 100 year old buildings mixed in with lots of mundane shopping centers/office parks. We saw lots of overturned and uprooted trees from the hurricane, and also realized it was going to be a lot colder than we thought on this trip. (As you can see from the photos, the city has a very English air about it, although again the photos crop out a lot of the modern mess that interferes with the illusion)

47. Christchurch

We arrived in Christchurch on a Friday, picked up our rental car, a Honda CRV (pictured here, although not in Christchurch) and took the 15 minute drive to the hotel. We were worried about getting lost, but everything is so empty here, only a complete moron could get lost. My first impression of the city is that it wasn't. It felt like a large suburban town about 40 years ago, or at least how those kinds of everyone knows everyone kinds of places are portrayed on TV. Wide streets, well kept houses and manicured lawns, no traffic and friendly people. The downside of this, of course, is Christchurch isn't exactly a must see on a global traveling itinerary.

We checked into our hotel, the George, in the city center next to the sprawling Hagley Park. The exterior is hideous, a white cement bunker. But open the door, and the lobby is quite hip, with a happening bar in the middle of the lobby, and very friendly, professional service. But, open the door again, this time to our room, and it's back downhill. The room is cramped, everything is beige and not well designed, and the bathroom is purely functional. After about 30 minutes in the room, our stuff was covering every inch of the room because there are no closets or storage. George (5) Room-2, Facilities-6, Service-6, Wow-0.

We got dressed and went to dinner at a nearby restaurant called Grimbly's, which is located in a renovated 100 year old Gothic style school building. The restaurant is beautiful, with huge ceilings, a fireplace and wonderful staff, who were also a bit lonely since the place was only about half full. She gave us incredible detail about where everything we ate and drank came from and also told us about the hurricane that hit Christchurch yesterday, one of the worst ever. The food was very good, the wine excellent, and made for a very good introduction to Christchurch.