Christchurch.

I spent a couple days looking around Christchurch where I was meeting Chris and Mara.

There are a lot of churches there, as the name would suggest. A lot of the buildings are made of this beautiful dark stone in this gothic style. I really loved just wandering through the streets. I stayed at a good hostel in an old building called Rolleston House. I think that was where one of the old mayors of the town lived. It was right in between the museum, art gallery, art centre, and botanic gardens. Very nice part of town.

The front entrance of the museum. It says: Lo, these are parts of His ways but how little a portion is heard of Him. Because, of course, it used to be a church.

The fountain and one of the houses in the gardens.

From the front porch of the hostel I stayed at where the street cars ran. The art centre is in the background.

More gothic architecture.

O, and this town is Rugby World Cup crazy. I thought it was next year, but it isn't even until 2011. They have a huge, beautiful new stadium though. This countdown clock was in the centre of town.

And, Christchurch must have a long history of wool production too because so many of the buildings have there old woolstores signs on them. I saw one called the Kashmir Building too. Too bad it isn't full of cashmere anymore? How it's an electronics superstore.