5/8/10
Location: Christchurch, New Zealand
Today was our day of leisure in the Garden City: Christchurch, New Zealand, We started out by going to the largest and most famous of the many gardens in Christchurch, the Christchurch Botanical Gardens. The gardens are sprawling and contain species from all over the world. In fact, almost everything in the gardens is imported. There is only a small section called the New Zealand Garden that features indigenous species. Since almost all of the plants are not native to New Zealand, some of them aren’t doing very well, but the majority I saw were thriving.
New Zealand’s seasons are opposite from ours in US, so it is fall here now. The cooler temps made for some stunningly bright, beautiful colors in the trees. My absolute favorite part of the gardens was the Central Rose Garden. It was like walking into the garden in The Secret Garden, just overflowing with all different types and colors of roses. It drizzled or sprinkled all day, which was annoying for my hair, but it made for some spectacular close-up photos on my 12 MP Sony Cybershot, a few of which you can see below. I took SO many photos in the gardens. Those added to the photos I have taken already on the ferry, transcostal train, and sightseeing will allow me to change my laptop’s desktop background every single day if I wanted to! I’ve never been much of a green thumb, even though I’ve helped my Mom plant and water our small flower garden for years, and I don’t even really receiving flowers all that much, since they just die and I’d rather do something fun. But here was different. I was completely in love with these gardens. Maybe it’s because everything here was planted and not dying in a vase, or maybe it’s because it’s so large and I was surrounded by the rich colors and sweet fragrances. I don’t know. I just know I loved walking through these gardens and marveling at all of the different trees, flowers, and even bonsai trees.
After exploring the gardens, or most of them anyway, we made our way to the Christchurch city square. The primary feature of the square is this majestic, stone church with high steeples and a bell tower. It also has a giant chess set with 3’ tall pieces for interested players, a large billboard counting down to the 2011 Rugby World Cup which will be hosted by Christchurch (69 weeks and 6 days if you were wondering;) ), and a market of vendors selling jewelry, hats, scarves, and other goods. Some of us ate at the street market food vendors. The set-up reminds me of the Fargo Street Fair a little bit. There were so many different kinds of ethnic foods, and I got an item called a pizzilla. It’s basically a pizza, but on a thin tortilla and better! Mine had so many different types of cheese on it, plus pepperonis, and cracked pepper. It was delicious. I was worried about the food before the trip, both if I would like it and if I would get sick, but so far, I’ve loved it and haven’t been ill at all.
We spent the afternoon exploring the souvenir shops spread throughout Christchurch. We were pleasantly surprised to see that Christchurch had so many, since Wellington only had one that we found. We laughed at the kitschy items like huge stuffed Kiwi birds and sheep backpacks, and found some items we liked for our family and friends back home.
At 5:45 p.m., we left for our Maori event. The Maori are the native people of New Zealand and they have a few productions (chapters 1-3 in the Uitara series) designed to educate and entertain. We attended chapter 3, which centered on the musket wars in the late 19th century in New Zealand. Basically, some Maori remained true to their traditional ways of doing things, while other Maori adapted the ways of the British, who recently settled on the islands. The evening concluded with a traditional Maori feast and song and dance performances. I learned so much about New Zealand and the Maori that I didn’t know, plus it was fun and very interactive. The actors are actually descendents of the bloodline featured in the productions, and they are so committed to their roles. I felt scared when the Maori woman toting a musket was staring us down and I felt sad when they were crying over the slain daughter of the chief. It was so moving.
After the Maori event, I hit the hay early since we had to leave on our bus tour the next morning at 7:00 a.m. So far, this trip has been so crazy amazing and it’s blowing my mind even more because I’m only about a week or ¼ of the way through the May seminar. I’ve already seen so much beautiful scenery and experienced so many unique and awesome things, but there’s still so much more to go! I love it even more than I thought I would. It’s really emphasized to me that traveling isn’t truly a luxury, but a necessity. I can’t imagine living ignorant of all of the places I’ve been so far. I know traveling is expensive, but I when I’m out of college and in the working world, I will cut other costs and budget, do whatever it takes, so I can continue to travel. It’s so important to see and experience everything in the flesh. Reading and pictures don’t do anything justice at all. You don’t feel the wind on your face, smell the sea in the air, or gape at the scene around you by opening a book. Don’t get me wrong, books are among my favorite things, but this trip has proven to me that words can only take you so far. Some things can never be fully and truly described on paper.
Today was our day of leisure in the Garden City: Christchurch, New Zealand, We started out by going to the largest and most famous of the many gardens in Christchurch, the Christchurch Botanical Gardens. The gardens are sprawling and contain species from all over the world. In fact, almost everything in the gardens is imported. There is only a small section called the New Zealand Garden that features indigenous species. Since almost all of the plants are not native to New Zealand, some of them aren’t doing very well, but the majority I saw were thriving.
New Zealand’s seasons are opposite from ours in US, so it is fall here now. The cooler temps made for some stunningly bright, beautiful colors in the trees. My absolute favorite part of the gardens was the Central Rose Garden. It was like walking into the garden in The Secret Garden, just overflowing with all different types and colors of roses. It drizzled or sprinkled all day, which was annoying for my hair, but it made for some spectacular close-up photos on my 12 MP Sony Cybershot, a few of which you can see below. I took SO many photos in the gardens. Those added to the photos I have taken already on the ferry, transcostal train, and sightseeing will allow me to change my laptop’s desktop background every single day if I wanted to! I’ve never been much of a green thumb, even though I’ve helped my Mom plant and water our small flower garden for years, and I don’t even really receiving flowers all that much, since they just die and I’d rather do something fun. But here was different. I was completely in love with these gardens. Maybe it’s because everything here was planted and not dying in a vase, or maybe it’s because it’s so large and I was surrounded by the rich colors and sweet fragrances. I don’t know. I just know I loved walking through these gardens and marveling at all of the different trees, flowers, and even bonsai trees.
After exploring the gardens, or most of them anyway, we made our way to the Christchurch city square. The primary feature of the square is this majestic, stone church with high steeples and a bell tower. It also has a giant chess set with 3’ tall pieces for interested players, a large billboard counting down to the 2011 Rugby World Cup which will be hosted by Christchurch (69 weeks and 6 days if you were wondering;) ), and a market of vendors selling jewelry, hats, scarves, and other goods. Some of us ate at the street market food vendors. The set-up reminds me of the Fargo Street Fair a little bit. There were so many different kinds of ethnic foods, and I got an item called a pizzilla. It’s basically a pizza, but on a thin tortilla and better! Mine had so many different types of cheese on it, plus pepperonis, and cracked pepper. It was delicious. I was worried about the food before the trip, both if I would like it and if I would get sick, but so far, I’ve loved it and haven’t been ill at all.
We spent the afternoon exploring the souvenir shops spread throughout Christchurch. We were pleasantly surprised to see that Christchurch had so many, since Wellington only had one that we found. We laughed at the kitschy items like huge stuffed Kiwi birds and sheep backpacks, and found some items we liked for our family and friends back home.
At 5:45 p.m., we left for our Maori event. The Maori are the native people of New Zealand and they have a few productions (chapters 1-3 in the Uitara series) designed to educate and entertain. We attended chapter 3, which centered on the musket wars in the late 19th century in New Zealand. Basically, some Maori remained true to their traditional ways of doing things, while other Maori adapted the ways of the British, who recently settled on the islands. The evening concluded with a traditional Maori feast and song and dance performances. I learned so much about New Zealand and the Maori that I didn’t know, plus it was fun and very interactive. The actors are actually descendents of the bloodline featured in the productions, and they are so committed to their roles. I felt scared when the Maori woman toting a musket was staring us down and I felt sad when they were crying over the slain daughter of the chief. It was so moving.
After the Maori event, I hit the hay early since we had to leave on our bus tour the next morning at 7:00 a.m. So far, this trip has been so crazy amazing and it’s blowing my mind even more because I’m only about a week or ¼ of the way through the May seminar. I’ve already seen so much beautiful scenery and experienced so many unique and awesome things, but there’s still so much more to go! I love it even more than I thought I would. It’s really emphasized to me that traveling isn’t truly a luxury, but a necessity. I can’t imagine living ignorant of all of the places I’ve been so far. I know traveling is expensive, but I when I’m out of college and in the working world, I will cut other costs and budget, do whatever it takes, so I can continue to travel. It’s so important to see and experience everything in the flesh. Reading and pictures don’t do anything justice at all. You don’t feel the wind on your face, smell the sea in the air, or gape at the scene around you by opening a book. Don’t get me wrong, books are among my favorite things, but this trip has proven to me that words can only take you so far. Some things can never be fully and truly described on paper.
Entrance to the Central Rose Gardens in the Christchurch Botanical Gardens.
0 comments:
Post a Comment