Tram, Gondola and Punting in Christchurch

 Triple the Fun!

OK, today we are going on a combination adventures. We will ride the beautifully restored heritage tram cars  through the town of Christchurch, getting off and on as places interest us. I totally forgot to take a picture of the tram so here is one from Google. But they look exactly like that! It was a busy day on the tram and it was a little difficult to hear the conductor teaching us about the history of the city of Christchurch because it was a little rattle trap car. very cool, but noisy!

We chose to get off on one of the tram stops to have a coffee and a lovely breakfast.

 We then walked through just a bit of the botanical gardens to get to our punting site.

So, a punting trip is old school navigating down the Avon River. Punting started back in 1917 and the people who work on this line are very strict about being traditional with 

dress and function. We had a lovely punt down on through the botanical gardens in Christchurch. We saw many ducks, geese, a special oak tree that the queen of England sent to New Zealand over 100 years ago. It was massively big!

 

After punting, we walked more around  the botanical gardens, and there was a beautiful Caretaker’s house, that had been there for over 100 years.

 It had a lovely garden, and many types of fresh produce  and herbs were used at the restaurant there! 

I saw a huge honey bee hard at work pollinating the flowers.

Thinking of my bestie Xan! Her last name in German means a large kind of bee!

Again, I was taken by how Eco logically minded the New Zealanders are. They are really trying to take care of their beautiful islands and their people.

Here is a lovely fountain that is found at the entrance of this incredible botanical garden in downtown Christchurch.

After we left the botanical garden, we found a beautiful collection of buildings that used to be a college. But has now been taken over by modge podge of businesses and still a few areas for an art school. 

There is still a central hall with intricately made stained glass windows. 

There was a stage that was set up that looked like it could be used for an orchestra or a play. The wood that was used echoed colors of gold and brown and the roof was probably 30 feet high. Sorry I’m not a metric conversion person lol.

The outside buildings are beautifully constructed in an old school look of brick and stone. They remind me of the buildings that you would see in an old romantic movie that has a castle!

Within these buildings, we found a place called The Cellar.  We decided to try a few more New Zealand wines. David was bold and tried a glass and of whiskey “neat” as they say. The place was exquisitely done - New World meets old. Excellent way to complete this part of our day.

Met another tram outside and rode it around the city to our final destination, our car. 

We had to drive 15 minutes to the last part of this experience which is the gondola. This gondola takes us up to a hike view of the surrounding area as we climb higher and higher to get the best view of Christchurch.

It was pretty amazing that we got to ride two different gondolas on the trip here. I don’t know if I’ve ever been on one in my whole life! Such a great vehicle to enable you to really see the surrounding areas

After walking around the outside area during a very blustery windy afternoon, we decided to go in and get a beverage. We got lucky and they  had our favorite Cordon Negro Champagne! Cheers to an amazing day.

Every day just seems to get better than the last. We are thoroughly enjoying our time and savoring our trip! 

This is our final Day in Christchurch, New Zealand and we have loved every minute of it!

We have one more night to stay here and then we will be driving to the airport to head to Rotorua by 12 noon tomorrow.

 Haere rā! (Or how to say goodbye in New Zealand!!)

Adios, aloha, sayonara, au revoir, ciao, salut!