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My New Zealand trip inspired 28 pages of journal and hundreds of photos. I had to select among the photos. The last shall be first on this blogsite, so to follow my progress day by day go to number 1 in the New Zealand theme.. Each text page is followed by a photo page.

(continued)  At the square I took the obligatory photos of the Cathedral, a wonderful torch (or ice cream cone) shaped millennium sculpture, and a colourful flower bed. I later learned that the sculpture is named The Chalice and is the work of New Zealand sculptor, Neil Dawson and commissioned to commemorate the Millenium. The classical beauty of the War Memorial next to the Cathedral also caught my attention. I bought a tram ticket. The tramway was reconstructed by this most tourist conscious of countries. A ticket costs $15 and might seem exorbitant but the small circuit takes one to the major highlights of the city’s centre and once the ticket is bought a passenger can get on and off and go round and round all day at will. I visited the Art Centre and Museum and did the circuit at least twice.

Christchurch Cathedral and War Memorial

The Art Centre was surrounded by market stalls with food, jewellery, paintings, carvings, woodcuts, and many other things on sale, most of reasonable quality and hand made. The Centre itself was once the University of Canterbury, Canterbury being the name of the region whose commercial hub is Christchurch. Here is the website:  http://www.artscentre.org.nz   It is host to many things and I saw theatre and dance venues, movies, ceramic arts, weaving and other artists workshop venues as well as exhibitions and a host of shops selling high quality New Zealand art and craft items. There are no doubt even more. The specialty in the shops is the sale of South Island artists’ work. To get an appreciation of the vibrancy of the art culture here there might be no better place to begin.

Again, the Chinese factor in my life came into play when I walked into a gallery of beautiful work by a young immigrant man from Taiwan. I saw an older man with a very young child playing at pushing him around and laughed with him and said ‘Nin hao.’ He asked how I knew Chinese and we had a conversation., This man had been a soldier in World War Two and stayed in Guizhou for a while so we both knew that area. Then he went to Taiwan so I assume he was Guo Min Tang. I said to his grand-daughter ‘Zhe shi nide ye ye.’ The old man’s eyes lit up and he said ‘Correct. I am her grandfather,’ and he told me the term used in Taiwan more often, ‘wai gong.’

Then his son, Kevin, Su Mu Chen, the artist, came and introduced himself. He is a man who I believe has a very clear peaceful beautiful spirit. His work shows that spirit.and it is clear in his face. Here is his website. Their family name is the same I was given by Su Jing Jing in China. Unfortunately I was unable to connect to Kevin’s website.

The outdoor market is held every Saturday and Sunday. It has an international food section and you can be sure I sampled some wares.

Christchurch is fully committed to art. Excellent.

On one of my trips around the tram circuit I stopped in at the Swiss Café, which is often mentioned in the tourist literature. Exchanging a few words with the owner he indicated he wished he were back in Switzerland. That’s ok. What was not ok was that when two young backpackers came in and looked at the many Swiss themed decorations and the dozens of photos he has pinned up he told them it was ‘a café, not a museum,’ and asked them to leave. Perhaps he has burnt out and needs to go home. The iced chocolate was very ordinary and I had much better elsewhere. The woman at the counter didn’t look very happy. I don’t recommend the shop.

Stained glass window, Christchurch Cathedral

Canterbury Museum is on the tram circuit. There I learned the sad but inspiring history of the Moriori. The Moriori are a group that broke away from the Maori and went to live on the Chatham Islands with a philosophy of peace. They banned the constant warfare and the cannibalism of the Maori and allowed fighting only in a controlled way and only to the point of first blood, then the fight stopped. How relevant to humanity. Unfortunately, after European arrival, two groups of Maori chartered boats to the Chatham Islands, settled there and slaughtered the Moriori whose chiefs decreed the Moriori law is eternal, leaving them with no option of defence. Even before the Maori invasion many Moriori died of European diseases.

For many years it was assumed that the Moriori were all dead but that was a myth. Also a myth was that the Moriori were the original peoples of New Zealand, but in fact they were originally Maori who followed an enlightened chief to settle in another place, just as many European religious groups went to America and other places. Maori and European killing of this gentle people was justified by another myth, that they were less than human, a primitive sub-human race. Where have we Australians heard this before?

Now the descendents of the Moriori have revived their culture and the history is gradually being corrected, just as the history of the Aboriginal people of Australia and the true stories of white invasion and attempted genocide are being told.

My New Zealand trip inspired 28 pages of journal and hundreds of photos. I had to select among the photos. The last shall be first on this blogsite, so to follow my progress day by day go to number 1 in the New Zealand theme.. Each text page is followed by a photo page.

(continued)   At Christchurch I took a shuttle bus to Dorset House. As I half expected not only was the reception closed but there was no staff member within cooee. When I used the wall phone to call the Dorset House number there was no response from a human, just a numbered  queuing system that led to a recommendation to try the website. In effect they will respond to booking enquiries from 8 to 5 only.

What a poor and in my opinion, irresponsible showing by such a well-presented Hostel. I dropped the key I had accidentally taken with me before into a slot at the counter and went in search of a taxi and a bed for the night. I do not recommend this hostel to anyone with a serious health problem as there would be no one to assist in case of a crisis at night. It is easy to imagine crisis scenarios with no staff direction.

I soon flagged down a taxi with a pleasant Somali driver and he took me to Charlie B’s in the City Centre. There was no trouble getting a bed there. It was dearer than others I had stayed at till then, by about a dollar and a half. However, it is part of a couple of discount groups that bring it to parity for members. The room was minimal with metal bunks that could be described as child height and I bumped my head a number of times on mine. It made me speculate that the term bunk is a transformation of an original ‘bump’. There was one power point for a four bed room, not enough in an age of rechargeable batteries. The point was on the wall in someone’s bed-nook.

The problem of rechargeable batteries was present in every hostel. Every resident was carrying a mobile phone and often a laptop. Charlie B’s was in fact the best set up for that with recharging facilities through the front counter which was manned more than any other I went to. http://www.charliebs.co.nz

Charlie B’s Backpacker

The worst thing about the room was that its window opened onto the fire escape area, giving lots of people the opportunity to walk over, climb in and steal if they were inclined that way. I was not the only one who was reluctant to open the window when no one was in the room. As the sun shone on the area for a good part of the day this room became warmish. I did not sleep much the first night there but then the weather cooled.

I set off in search of food as usual. There are some good restaurants not far away. A Charlie’s staff member recommended Winnie Bago’s pizza restaurant but it was full unless one chose to wait in the bar area. Not being a bar person I refused the invitation to wait there for 4 minutes and went on with my search. Not far away I passed an Indian restaurant Jules in Greymouth had recommended but I chose the Sampan next door as it seemed I might get authentically cooked Chinese there. My choice was satisfactory and I had two soups, ‘Jirou mitang’ and a ‘combination wonton soup’. The first is one of my favourites, chicken and sweet corn and I apologize to my Chinese friends if I have spelled it wrongly. My attempt is neither Pinyin transcription  nor Chinese. I went back to my room happy after amusing the two waitresses from Lanzhou and Shanghai with my efforts at Chinese.

When I got back I was invited to go to a jazz club by Daniel, a German man, but I sadly declined as I felt exhausted. I tell you again my sleep was broken and unpleasant not just because of heat but because of the stuffiness of a small room with four occupants and a closed window.

Day five

The day began with an unsuccessful attempt to get a room change but it worked out well. I walked towards Cathedral Square. Charlie’s is not far from the heart of Christchurch. I stopped at a café for an omelette and a cup of tea. The café was run by Beijingers and once again my smattering of Chinese made me instantly acceptable. I managed a couple of real sentences to the delight of these native Putonghua speakers who understood my pronunciation very well. It gave me a spirit lift to start my day.

For about twenty minutes everyone who walked past was Asian. Christchurch is truly cosmopolitan and I saw many families of mixed race and a rich racial mix in the population, but with a very British base. (To be continued)