Feeling Cultured

Today, we took a break from hikes and restoration projects by enjoying more of Christchurch.  We started off the day by heading back to the Riccarton House, but this time, instead of walking through the bush, we walked through the local farmers market that was being held there.  While there were some technical difficulties regarding a certain honey stand's credit card reader, we were still able to enjoy everything the farmers market had to offer, including (but not limited to) perogies, vegan hot chocolate, and olive oil.

The Riccarton House looked a little less distinguished today surrounded by so many tents

When we left the farmers market, we went straight to the Christchurch Botanic Gardens, where we met up with Dr. Meurk. We were primarily there to see the portion of the gardens devoted to natives; however, we couldn’t help but stop to see some spectacular exotics, such as the giant redwood. 

“I always wanted to see a redwood. I just never thought it would be in New Zealand” -Grace

The redwood with Tupelo for scale 

Dr. Meurk explaining to the group that while the native kauri tree he was pointing to was planted, the seedlings around it were natural

Meryl had explained to me that in the aftermath of the earthquake in 2011, much of the city was closed off for reconstruction, but the gardens stayed open. This caused the gardens to become a sort of natural gathering space for many people to come together, grieve, and process. With that, it is very fitting that they had Silver Fern planted in the gardens. 

The Silver Fern is a symbol for New Zealand, as it represents not only strength and enduring power, but also an attachment to the land itself.

Before leaving the gardens, we stopped for lunch at the Ilex Café, which didn’t disappoint. After lunch, we went through the cafe’s small interactive exhibit. 

We especially enjoyed the magnet puzzle

The Ilex Café exhibit was just a warm up though for the real deal. After leaving the café, we walked over to the Canterbury Museum, which had many exhibits including ones on the Māori, Antarctic, and the mummy of Tash pen Khonsa. After spending over an hour there, we all agreed that there was still so much more to see. 

This was a depiction of the pre-Māori people hunting a giant Moa bird with their (now extinct) Kurī (dog) 

While we were sad to not able to see the art gallery today, our time in Christchurch was cut short for a good reason: we needed to head back to our dorms at Lincoln to bundle up! Thanks to Dr. H’s good friend, Dean, we were able to get tickets to the Super Rugby Finals between the Canterbury Crusaders and the Argentinian Jaguares. We knew it would be chilly, but we were all surprised when Dr. H. told us to wear at least four layers! Going into the game, most of us had no clue how rugby was played, but thanks to Lexie, our resident rugby expert, we caught on eventually. While we were all new to the sport, we were very excited to see the Crusaders take home the title for the third time in a row. 

We had some pretty great seats! 

After the game, while everyone else was battling traffic, we hung out at another one of Dr. H’s friend, Bryan's, house which we had parked at. While there, we were able to socialize, look for constellations, and enjoy some down time before making our way home. 

While the day started off leisurely with the farmers market, botanic gardens, and museum, the rugby match gave us a late night, so we are very excited to get to sleep in tomorrow. 

Cheers!
Maryanna