Upon arrival we take a walk around downtown Christchurch.
This bizarre ad caught my eye.
Christchurch hosts an amazing botanical garden. Be sure to check it out if you ever go there. Here is a photo-mosaic of a nice old Californian redwood.
The rose garden.
It's actually late spring in the southern hemisphere this time of year. Everything was blooming and smelling wonderful.
A close-up of a rose.
A nice pond.
Unidentified plant with large, intimidating leaves.
This old tree caught my eye because of the amount of twist in its trunk. What causes such a twist?
On the grounds of the old university in Christchurch (not the modern U of Cantebury campus) we found this interesting sculpture. Incidentally, Ernest Rutherford (Kiwi physicist who discovered that atoms have nuclei) once taught and did research here.
Another shot of the sculpture.
Our flight to Antarctica was delayed by 27 hours, so we had some time to kill in Christchurch. Among other things we went on a nice kayak trip through the botanical garden.
And came upon many ducks.
Jeff, Tom and Joaquin at work.