We had great day today. The weather was perfect; well at least at the start of the day. By 2pm the clouds had blown in and the wind came in from the south. Make that a gale.

But, the trams were fun. And at $40NZ each for the whole day – we certainly got our money’s worth.

Today there were four different trams running and we actually spent some time on each one, after we had stopped and hopped off at different locations. The tram drivers were fantastic and gave a running commentary as we passed significant sites. We learnt a lot about the history of Christchurch and about the devastating earthquake in 2011. So much of the CBD has been rebuilt, some facades were saved for certain buildings, but most have been totally re-made. Only three buildings in the centre of the city were unaffected by the quake. It must have been terrifying.

This street is right next to where we are staying. The street has mirror image facades all the way down the short street that is only for the trams, and pedestrians of course. It features lots of restaurants and bars and Mick and I did go for a stroll along here.

Being Saturday, there was an open air market on and both Mick and I spent some money here buying something each to remember our visit. For Mick, he bought himself a hand-forged frying pan and I bought a pre-loved, black mohair scarf, replacing one I lost when we were living in France in 2019.

We came back here for lunch and both agreed we had made the wrong decision. We had seen some amazing options at Riverside Market earlier in the morning. Never mind.

I was not going to include any more murals in this post. Today we did see clever paintings decorating the sides of broken down buildings and blank spots in the city, so I had to include this…

Around 5pm we exited the last tram of the day near the Victoria Hotel (a free house). This was deliberate. We were lucky to get a seat, and I had two nice wines here – a Chardonnay from Hawke’s Bay, and a great Merlot / Malbec blend from ‘London Calling’ in the Clare Valley.

We made our way towards our accommodation, and stopped at Case Publica (specialising in rum). We had a seat at the bar, and while we enjoyed a drink, we were captivated by the guy making amazing looking cocktails.

We only watched though.

We found a nice (BYO) Asian restaurant closer to home and headed back to our apartment feeling great, and reading for an early night.

We have an early start in the morning. And Mick is not feeling that great. But he has kept a brave face all day. I hope he sleeps well tonight.

Christchurch has surprised us both – it is a great city.