A Little More Around Christchurch

We're getting ready to travel up to the Marlborough Sounds, Nelson and Golden Bay areas, but have been enjoying our time in Christchurch as Paul's first six-week term at University of Canterbury ends.  The mornings have been warmer overall and spring is coming, with the first daffs (daffodils, to those in the USA) now seen in the parks and the farmers' markets.

We went to an exhibit at the Canterbury Museum on the Whole House Reuse project.  An entire house that was damaged in the 2010-2011 earthquakes was dismantled, all of the component parts were categorized, and then various pieces were chosen by artists and craftspeople, and transformed into artistic and functional artifacts.  This Monday many of the art works are being auctioned off to raise money for two local charitable projects.



Cindy is enjoying her weekly hiking trips with several Christchurch friends.

We continue to enjoy discovering edgy signs around town.

What better slogan for a temp work agency?

We went to a photo exhibition displaying photos for the New Zealand Geographic photographer of the year 2015 competition.  There's not a lot of gallery space in Christchurch right now, so the display is held outdoors during the day, in unused shipping containers and on display blocks.  Especially interesting was a newer category for videos, using recent camera tracking technology to allow slow panning across the sky, the forest, the sea, and human activity.  You can see the best photos and videos through the link above.

Reconstruction continues in Christchurch.  One of our friends commented that the orange cone people must be doing a huge business.  A recent newspaper article stated that there's $100 million NZD spent each week on reconstruction right now, with multiple buildings opening or reopening each day.  In addition to all of the building work, roads get fixed up and sometimes are torn up again for more improvements or changes, or for laying fiber optic communication cable.  We and many others were happy to see a new wing of the central bus transfer station opened up this week.

Cones are everywhere in Christchurch

New wing of the central bus station

One of the outdoor art pieces that somehow survived the earthquakes

On Friday night we went with two friends to a concert by Li'l Chuck, a local one-man skiffle machine band.  He plays resonator guitar, harmonica or kazoo, high-hat cymbal and bass drum at the same time, and sings if he doesn't have another instrument in his mouth.  Good local music is always fun, but seeing it in the Orange Studio production and performance space created by music and theater maestro Michael Bell, son of our computer science friend and host Tim Bell, was an extra treat.

On Saturday we traveled to Sydenham, an inner suburb of Christchurch.  We went looking for a bakery/cafe (found, quite good) and a garage sale (closed up by the time we got there), but the main attraction, at least for Paul, was The Beer Library - a craft beer shop recently opened by a couple from Canada and the USA.  They happened to be hosting a tasting session for Craftwork Brewery, an Oamaru based brewery specializing in Belgian-influenced ales.  Paul was happy...

Tasting session at the Beer Library

Craftwork Brewing owners and a friend

The couple who own The Beer Library

Enough cooler space for many interesting beers

There are always more murals to discover around Christchurch - including this one featuring a tui, a NZ bird with a wonderful varied and squawky metallic call.

Tramping and Movies and Kiwis, Oh My!

Since we last wrote, we’ve been to some films as part of the New Zealand International Film Festival, have been back to Lyttelton (a port suburb of Christchurch), have experienced rain, snow and hail (all in the same day), and visited Willowbank Nature Reserve.

The film festival presents 114 films, most with two to four showings each, in a two week period at two different venues.  We’ve seen the Best of New Zealand short films for 2015, "Amy" (a biographical film about singer Amy Winehouse), "How To Change The World" (a documentary on Greenpeace and its founding members), and "Umrika" (a story about a younger brother leaving his village in India to search for his older brother who has gone to America ("Umrika" as the people in the village say.)   Tomorrow we see "The Art of Recovery", a film about the artwork and murals in downtown Christchurch made as part of the earthquake recovery.  On Sunday we see "Awake", a documentary about Yogananda, one of first teachers of yoga.  Half of the films are showing at the Isaac Theatre Royal, a historic theater that has recently reopened after repairs from earthquake damage.

NZIFF brochure, with drawings of characters from some of festival films

Isaac Theatre Royal - recently restored and reopened

We’ve been to Lyttelton for their farmers market.  We like spending time in Lyttelton, as it's a small but tightly knit community with interesting people and a beautiful setting on a mountain-edged bay off the ocean.

Coffee shop with a bit more

Singing and playing piano in front of the Harbour Co-op

 The hills across from Lyttelton were covered in snow recently.

Cindy went hiking with a local tramping club at Diamond Harbour across from Lyttelton.

Just to remind everyone here that it is still winter, over the weekend the temperatures dropped, and we had snow and hail.

We visited Willowbank Nature Reserve and Cindy has started volunteering there every Monday.  She gets to help with feeding the kiwi birds.  One of the newest kiwi, Ngawari (nicknamed No Worry) is a bit ill, so is being given meds and special feedings.  Cindy was lucky to be able to see No Worry as most people in New Zealand have never seen a kiwi in the daylight (though Willowbank has a nocturnal house with six Kiwi in it that people can go through).  We’ve included photos of Ngawari and some of the other birds.

Ngawari being held by Jemma, one of the staff

Kea (mountain parrot)

White-faced heron

Bellbird

What We Do In Christchurch

Since we live here for over four months, we try to join in local activities.  We've found a variety of interesting things that keep our days busy.

We folk dance on Friday nights with Farandol, the Christchurch international folk dancing group.  We share some of their repertoire, but they do a fair number of dances where we just have to jump in and learn, which is a fun challenge.  Paul has been teaching at least one dance each Friday.

Cindy is volunteering at Harbour Food Co-op in Lyttelton, a seaside suburb of Christchurch.  Harbour Co-op is three years old.  The store is tiny and looks like co-ops in Minnesota or Wisconsin fifteen to twenty years ago.  The co-op is doing well, has great staff, and Cindy is enjoying helping out.

We attended a movie and dessert night with about fifty people from the Christchurch Vegetarian Society.  The movie was Planeat (2010), a documentary about three people coming to a vegan diet in their search for food that is environmentally sustainable, healthy, and good for the future of the planet.  I don't think we'll become vegan, but the movie pushed us to think more about food issues and their impact, and we'll be trying some new vegan dishes.  The food shown in the movie was beautifully prepared and presented.  After the film, the Society provided a variety of tasty vegan desserts.

We went to a photo exhibit called UC Me in one of the University of Canterbury buildings.  The exhibit shows about thirty student faces, illustrating the many backgrounds, accomplishments and ambitions of the students.  Large prints of individual student faces are shown around town on bus stops, billboards and signs.

 

Last week the University held a night market as part of their Winterlude celebration.  Though it was about 40F and very windy that night, we ventured out to listen to a jazz band, watch a crepe maker, and see the campus chaplain give free haircuts.

At least once every day we walk from our house across Ilam fields, a multipurpose set of sports fields that is part of the university.  We often get to watch soccer games there.