Ah, what lovely little town. Though all the visitors I met agree that the town is rather, well, sleepy, even boring, it was the rather relaxed and easy atmosphere here that made me enjoy my visit. I had time to stroll around the Botanical Garden, visited the Canterbury Museum, which has an Antarctica exhibit and, on temporary display, the Hallet research station, that was decommissioned and send north. The latter was very interesting since the station, built somewhere in the fifties, directly impacted a colony of Adelie Penguins, causing a great drop in the population number in the first decaade of operations. When the station was finally abandoned and later disassembled, a huge amount of junk, waste, and leaked fuel had to be removed from the site. Today, a large area that includes the original stations site, is under environmental protection and mostly off-limits to visitors.

A short trip across the road brought me into the Museum of Contemporary Art. Two very nice exhibitions, Giacometti, Scupltures and Drawings, and Craig Potton, Floating on Ice, entertained me for at least another hour. After that I went for the Christchurch Gondola, an outlook that is roughly 500 high. The hill is part of an old crater, that has now Lake Ellsmere in it. I walked quite a stretch along that crater and then turned towards the coast. I can’t upload the pix I took right now, but be assured, the landscape is gorgeous!

Well, the rest of the day was spent with food and drinks, which was rather delightful. Though one thing is certain: the local nightlife is rather dull and limited….