Though I changed my itinerary to escape from rains, it could not be avoided completely. Almost all places of New Zealand were forecasted to get rain for those two days. We could still have gone to some places but then it was not fun to visit during rains. And some places like Kaikoura were cut off due to landslides and flooding. “Why not we take it light?”, we thought. Until then we had mainly covered the country side of New Zealand. Why not cover some parts of the city? My family also wanted to do some shopping and the rains gave a good opportunity!!
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| A park in Christchurch |
On one of the days when it rained heavily we visited International Antarctic centre near Christchurch airport. Since the chances of us visiting Antarctica was very low, it looked like a perfect fit!!
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| Tanu experiencing polar storm!! |
It was a nice experience at the centre where lot of information about Antarctica was provided. Haggling ride, 4D theatre and polar storm experience were the highlights of the place. My family was extremely happy about the place.
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| Small blue penguins |
Until then we had only eaten self cooked food. There was some “pressure” on me to take them to a restaurant. And so we went to a Mexican restaurant. While Chaya and I cherished the food, my mom and Tanu hated it. We had to pack their food and later I and Chaya consumed it for dinner!! That was the only time we had food at the restaurant in New Zealand.
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| Tanu looking small!! |
Next day, we went for Christchurch city tour. There was tram ride that took tourists to various places of interest. Since it was expensive and tram ride was not new to us, we decided to walk along the tram route!! That was quite pleasant.
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| Christchurch tram |
Bridge of remembrance, a war memorial dedicated to those who died in World War 1.
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| Bridge of remembrance |
Christchurch was devastated by 2013 earthquake. The glimpse of that could be seen at the Cathedral which is not yet restored.
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| Christchurch cathedral |
A good amount of time was also spent on shopping. Nothing much was purchased but we roamed around the shopping complex.
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| Tram route in Christchurch |
As the weather conditions were expected to improve we made plan for the last two days of our stay in New Zealand.
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