we would like the triple deal: Punting, Gondola and Tram
Sarah and I decided that today would be our full day in Christchurch, so we drove into town early in the morning and looked for a place to purchase a triple deal so that we could experience the three great deals of the city. We were not able to reserve a punt until later in the day so we signed up and then voted to find the gondola first. Somehow, Sarah and I find ways to make things more complicated than they should be, and the start of the day ended up being a little more stressful than we planned for.
What had happened was...
The first issue was we were not properly equipped to handle a driving excursion. We had an inner city map and a driving route map but what we needed was a map that had street names on it that extended past 1 square kilometer and showed us how to get to the base of the gondola. Anyways, we started out of town per the instructions of one of the driving routes (which did have "Gondola" as stop 7 of 13 or so). The first sign that we were doing something wrong was the huge mountain we started to drive up. It was most definitely a scenic drive, but how does a gondola start at the top of a mountain? I figured we must be going over a mountain and would find the basin on the other side. Nope. Sure enough, after 40 km up a mountain that had no guard rail and was barely wide enough for a truck we saw the gondola station at the top of the mountain. I was getting tired of keeping my eyes on the road, gripping the wheel so tightly so as to prevent us flying down the side of the mountain that I was probably driving too fast. I did kind of feel like a race car driver, maybe Lightning McQueen! vrrrrrrrrrrroooom!
We pulled off the road and sat staring at it. We discussed how on earth we would get to it, perhaps there was a pathway from the road up the 100m or so to the building. Should we start walking, and take the gondola down and then back up? At this point I was very hungry and it was almost not worth the gondola ride, but we had already paid for it!
So Sarah and I got back into the car and tried to find our way down the mountain to where the start of the gondola was. Somehow we made it down the mountain and ended up having a nice drive by the beach! We took the gondola back up the mountain and had a little lunch. From the top of the mountain we were able to see Lyttelton Harbour, a sea-filled crater of a volcano that erupted more than 11 million years ago. Additionally, it is the place Ernie Shackleton came to port before his trip of true "endurance" down to Antarctica. Lots of history I didnt know about!
After the gondola, adventure we headed back into Christchurch and took the tram around the inner square (about a 2mile track). The historic trams were built during the 20's and 30's and are more of a tourist attraction than local transportation vehicle. The hop on, hop off trams go in circles and pass most of the key spots in Christchurch. Sarah and I were entertained in the city square by Maori dancers as well as a market of sorts which offered paintings, clothing, sculpture and more from local artists.
We finished the day with a 30 minute punt ride through the botanical gardens. A traditional English punt hold 6-10 people and has a man with a pole standing on the back! We took the front seats and he pushed the boat up and back and gave us some history of the gardens. I admit, however, it would have been substantially more fun if he had sung to us, but instead of being a really hot Italian or Kiwi, he was an expat from Quebec! Boring.
Izel and Russell hosted a BBQ for us that evening with friends who were also from South Africa. The meal was pretty traditional for them, and of course I cannot remember the names of everything, but we had a lot of meat (beef sausage, steak and kebabs) and pap, which is basically loose polenta topped with a thick marinaira-like sauce. It was very very yummy! We finished the meal with a glass of Amarula which is a South African liquor which Russell served over a bit of ice. It was so good I had some more the next night, and secretly wanted to bathe in it every day of my life, and eat it on everything! It's made from the fruit of the marula tree - aka the Elephant Tree which is why the bottle has an elephant on it - native to the plains of South Africa.
mmmmm I want some right now!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment