New Zealand or England
We have travelled to a point almost as far from home as we can be. New Zealand is the other side of the world and in another hemisphere. We are in South Island's first city, Christchurch.....or we think we are. This is England. We are in a late Victorian English city. The statue of Queen Victoria on Victoria Square is almost identical to the one that gazes down Peascod St in Windsor.
Even the weather is English - grey and overcast with the odd drop of spitty rain, though it is not cold. The rose garden in the Botanic Gardens is a small slice of Mottisfont though the roses and all the other plants in this very attractively laid out park are larger and rather more vigorous than any English gardener ever achieved. It is really only the vigorous health of the plants in all the city's green spaces that suggests that this might be somewhere other than England - that and the lack of any really old buildings. The cathedral here was built in only 1881 and there are no structures older than about 1860. So the city has a much more modern feel than any English city. That and the fact that the city has no traffic jams. The cars and buses flow freely everywhere. There simply isn't the population density. Christchurch is a lovely city in which to wander around.
A free shuttle bus service runs more or less north to south and a charming, if a shade over-priced tram runs a circular east to west to east circle. walking around, you could be in England; Oxford Terrace, Cambridge Terrace, Armagh St - there are even punts lazily floating down the River Avon that flows through the city, a river no wider than the Isis or Thames close to their sources.
Even the weather is English - grey and overcast with the odd drop of spitty rain, though it is not cold. The rose garden in the Botanic Gardens is a small slice of Mottisfont though the roses and all the other plants in this very attractively laid out park are larger and rather more vigorous than any English gardener ever achieved. It is really only the vigorous health of the plants in all the city's green spaces that suggests that this might be somewhere other than England - that and the lack of any really old buildings. The cathedral here was built in only 1881 and there are no structures older than about 1860. So the city has a much more modern feel than any English city. That and the fact that the city has no traffic jams. The cars and buses flow freely everywhere. There simply isn't the population density. Christchurch is a lovely city in which to wander around.
A free shuttle bus service runs more or less north to south and a charming, if a shade over-priced tram runs a circular east to west to east circle. walking around, you could be in England; Oxford Terrace, Cambridge Terrace, Armagh St - there are even punts lazily floating down the River Avon that flows through the city, a river no wider than the Isis or Thames close to their sources.
