A Short Trip to New Zealand (Part 3)

It has been a while since I posted about the rest of my trip to New Zealand. This third installation features Akaroa, Little River, and Christchurch. The tour continues as the cruise ship moved northeast. Because these places were too small and the harbors too shallow draft for the ship to dock, we had to take a tender. And once on land, our group took a tour bus from Akaroa to Christchurch via Little River.

This is Akaroa:

Going to and coming back, we had passed through Little River. Little River is indeed little; one main street, a decommissioned train station turned into a museum, and two small stores:

No matter how small, there was some charm. Once we got to Christchurch, the tour guides dropped us off at the Christchurch Botanic Gardens with strict instructions to meet back by 2:15pm so that we could make it back to Akaroa to take the tender back to the cruise ship.

But before dropping us off, the tour guides had driven around downtown area to get become familiar with some of the sights around town. Our group had about 30 people but people ended up splitting up. I went with mom and two of her friends and decided to walk a circuit.
One thing was this very interesting structure:

In 2010 and 2011, Christchurch experienced a major earthquake which leveled buildings and damaged others. Some buildings were still being renovated six to seven years later. This church got the nickname “Cardboard Cathedral” because of the boards put up while workers worked on the church.

Lunch was at the Container Mall – a whole bunch of temporary that became semi-permanent while the rest of the city was being renovated. We found a whole bunch of places to eat, all in stalls and food trucks much like Los Angeles. The only place that smelled great and appealed to us was a Lebanese-Greek place that sold gyros. We were sitting at the outside picnic area when two people asked where we got that food. I was more than happy to tell them where to go find the food truck.

Lastly, as we completed the circuit, we ended up at the Botanic Gardens where we would be picked up. Here are some selected pictures from Christchurch Botanic Garden: