We had rather a late night with packing and throwing away; we seemed to have accumulated a great many important pieces of paper and leaflets. It has been very hard to get Paul to throw away food we have bought - we have been making our own breakfasts in motels and hostels, and often making sandwiches for lunch as it is so difficult to buy a sandwich not made with white sliced polystyrene. For some reason, Paul cannot bring himself to throw food away, and it has to be wrestled from his unwilling hands.
We managed to return the car on time in the morning, then caught a bus into the city. It was a shame we had to return the car in the morning when we weren't flying until the evening, but that was the consequence of Qantas' not giving us the flight we had originally requested, even though it had free seats. We had booked the car on the assumption we would get the flights we wanted, and the car booking could not be extended until evening.
We went to the Botanical Gardens which we had not had time to visit so far, and it was too beautiful a day to want to be inside.
The gardens are part of Hagley Park, and are bordered by the River Avon, which arises from a spring out near the airport. It is very shallow, never more than a metre, and is popular for punting, rowing and kayaking.
We wandered around at first, admiring the huge trees
and some of the strange sculptures; I never found out what his one was about.
We spent a long time in the Rose garden, where there are thousands of roses. We just sat in the shade and chatted with somebody on the next seat and appreciated the birdsong, the colours and the perfume.
Near the roses was a fragrance garden specially created to appeal to blind people, where we found this beautiful white wisteria.
We ate our sandwiches near the lake
and soon attracted a flock of ducks, sparrows and chaffinches and several seagulls, who all thought they could learn to like ham sandwiches.
We took a trip round the entire gardens on a little bus, which was very interesting, as we looked at native New Zealand plants and some Australian ones. Some of the ponds suffered from liquefaction and had to be re-lined as they were full of little heaps of very fine sand. The driver told us she had been out driving the bus round the gardens when the earthquake struck, and had no idea that it was so serious until she and her passengers became aware of the numbers of people rushing out of offices and shops into Hagley Park.
I couldn't resist a photograph of this wonderful Edwardian fountain, a gift of a Mr Peacock
It was put away in the 1940s as it was felt to require too much upkeep, but brought out 30 or 40 years later when it was recognised as a very decorative object.
The wind was a little cold, so we went into the museum to see a few things we missed last time. The streets of old shops were really wonderful. My father would have loved the old chemist's shop - in fact, it would have looked very familiar to him.
There was a wonderfully detailed doll's house in the toy shop; the whole house is full of Victorian furnishings and ornaments.
There were lots of fascinating old shops from around the turn of the century; there was a barber, a bookmaker, an ironmongery, a china shop, a saddler and a clothier. Some were just windows. Others, like the toyshop, you could enter and admire the many objects.
We also visited the Paua Shell house. Fred and Myrtle Flutey, a couple who lived in Bluff (near Invercargill) started to put the shells up on the walls inside their house during the 1950s. You can buy whole Paua shells, but they are more usually made into jewellery. Fred collected the shells on beaches and polished them; they are about the size and general shape of a saucer, though they are oval in shape and quite deep. The colour is on the outside curved face of the shell, and is a mixture of green and blue iridescence, so rather eye-catching. The sitting room walls are completely covered in them, and there is lots of other kitch in the house as well. Everything that could be covered in a gleaming shell or inlaid gleaming bits of shell was covered.
People came from all over the world to see the house, and now that the couple are both dead, it has been re-created in the museum. I wish I could have taken a picture, but I was being watched! Anyway, I see from YouTube that it doesn't photograph very well.
We caught a bus back to our luggage, which was being stored where we had spent the night, and as we were earlier than needed, we spent a pleasant half hour in the sunny sheltered garden.
We really have been very lucky with the weather in the last few days, it has been beautiful. The Met Service here seems to think this is the last day of beautiful weather though. It will probably rain tomorrow.
The shuttle got us to the airport in plenty of time, and we dined at the airport at the somewhat antipodean hour of 6. I was able to post most of today's blog using the free airport wireless, which was convenient as I have nearly used the 500 Mg of data I bought in Dunedin about 10 days ago. I'm sure I have no idea where it went!
The flight was uneventful, and now we are back in North Island until December 10th.
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