Christchurch and Sumner

We arrived in Christchurch on the 10th June, here are 2 pics of the central city, the river Avon runs through the city.

We were invited to a bbq at Debs and Paul Wilsons, in Rangoria which took us 45mins to get to from Christchurch on the sunday- and we had fun talking to other people who have been living in NZ for a while and a couple of Kiwis too.

We even at raw fish Kiwi style!

Christchurch seems a nice city, but not that easy to drive around, (driving in cities is not one of Robs favorite passtimes - hence the sharp exit from Welly) and the tourist maps are usless...they only include the big roads...so for anyone not coming to New Zealand as a tourist, buy a proper map when you get to here, the Kiwimaps are good.

The suberbs of Christchurch are big and merge into one another, and we were always getting lost and driving around till we found our bearings!

Sumner is a nice place by the sea with a nice beach, but theres only one road in, and it takes about 35 mins to get into the central city (not rush hour, we wer never up that early) and its 50km per hr all the way, plus the traffic lights...you get the picture.

We were staying in a rental in Sumner which I had booked for a month, and it was a great appartment, but in the winter, with its huge open plan style it was COLD! and although it said it had underfloor heating, we couldn't find any heating other than an electric fan heater...a small electric fan! But there again it may have had something to do with us arriving when Canterbury was subjected to a "weather Bomb" and huge amounts of snow fell and temperatures got down to around minus 2 to 5 or below depending on where you lived!


Poor Sheepies!










heres a pic of the road driving up to sumner, after the snow had melted...it didnt stay long near the sea (its behind that hill in the background)





Heres a picture of the beach as the sun was setting.


The weather in Christchurch was freezing and we were not getting the right feelings, so we decided that rather than freeze our butts off there we would pack a few things and head off further south for a week......Which was a good idea as it snowed the night we left and the weather got COLDER!.....................