A muse on the Muse to NZ.

[drron]

Some of those spelling errors are due to the US spellchecker-don't pick them all up.Sometimes due to the vagaries of the internet-mrsdrron tells me I have spelt something wrong,go to edit and there is the right word,so save and the wrong word appears again.So I just don't bother anymore.

 

[PLANT]

Any rough water over that side of the ditch with cyclone back home?

 

[mrs.dr.ron]

Any rough water over that side of the ditch with cyclone back home?

Dont know, we are off the ship now and have just spent 5 days in Auckland, today we drove down to Hawkes Bay ........ but back to normal transmission ( Rons trip reports are never in real time - he is usually a couple of days behind )

 

[drron]

So now we are really arriving in Lyttelton.Even though the natives might call it a harbour it is controlled by the Lyttelton Port Company.At 596 pax capacity the Muse can use this port facility.

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We were told this large trawler fishes Antarctic waters.

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Some larger birds.A pacific gull and a southern skua.

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The muse gets some attention..

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[drron]

We just got the ship's shuttle into Christchurch.Through the tunnel which I imagine would have been scary when one of the larger shocks was happening.We walked to the Botanic Gardens first.Signs of autumn already.

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A private school borders the Gardens.The oldest Independent school in NZ.

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The tourist tram rattles past.

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The gardens.

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[drron]

So into the gardens.

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Now I loved the large treeslike the monkey puzzle tree and the giant sequoias.

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But mrsdrron loved a smaller tree with a typical kiwi name-pohutukawa.This one was flowering fairly late.

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But I was off looking at more beautiful big trees.

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[drron]

Medicinal flowers-echinacea.Not recommended for those with tachycardias.

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But I was drawn back to the sequoias.

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Then mrsdrron found a maple and hydrangea grove.So I sat down for a while.

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[drron]

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These are actually small crab apples.

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The reason for these pics is that I gained some good karma here.A duck was under the tree trying to eat a fallen fruit.It just couldn't get it's bill around it.I walked over and the duck obviously thought I was trustworthy only taking one step back.I stood on the fruit flattening it.The duck rushed back and was easily able to break the fruit up and enjoy it's meal.I did get the impression that I was supposed to hang around and repeat my good deed.
Then to the conservatories.Wonderful colour.

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[drron]

Cacti and carnivores.

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Orchids from small to large.

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And bromeliads.

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[drron]

Next is the rose garden.Coming to the end of the display.

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[drron]

Then dahlias.

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A little disappointing was the New Zealand section.

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[drron]

Next was the Japanese garden.We were lucky with a bright sunny day enhancing the reflections.

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Then there were the ducks.

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[drron]

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Then another water feature.

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And a touch of Scotland.

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This little fellow was at least twice the size of the sparrows with a speckled chest and ran everywhere.? a young quail.

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[drron]

The Peace bell.

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Naturally drron couldn't help making music.

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The last flowers.

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We now walked back to the City centre.

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Apparently cruisers no matter how elite they are are not allowed into the CBD.
We walked down Cashel street to the CBD.It looks like no pre 2010 buildings here.Probably appropriate that you go over the Bridge of Remembrance as part of the walk down this street.

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[drron]

You soon come to reminders of the earthquake.

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The you come to the cathedral.

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After the initial quake the church was advised to put steel reinforcing at the front of the cathedral to stop further damage.However in the most severe aftershock that reinforcing exacerbated the damage basically removing mos of the front of the cathedral.The church is apparently going to rebuild with a cost of $NZ 1 billion+.
The good folk who live on the Canterbury Plains are upset that the Irrigation plan that was in force has been abolished and the Government is doing what it wants with no input from ordinary citizens.

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Sometimes I think gulls know exactly what they are doing.

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[drron]

This is a building etched into mrsdrron's memory.

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In late December 2010 we were booked into the Novotel to stay.As we arrived a large aftershock struck.We decided not to stay.You couldn't drive into the CBD so I parked across the river and mrsdrron walked to the Novotel to cancel our reservation.She was walking past this building basically where the steel supports are.A large chunk of masonry landed by her feet.
Took me a while to realise this was a sculpture.

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This building is still empty.

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We now walked back to the shuttle stop.A little bit of Australia there.

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Back to the ship.

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All that walking had made us tired so lunch in our suite.I had a spicy corn fritter and then the SS best hot dog.

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[drron]

After lunch and a good lie down we walked the decks.The lookout from the top of the Christchurch gondola is easily seen.

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The trawler hasn't gone anywhere.

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A lot of timber is exported from New Zealand.Here it is loaded from trucks.

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A train went past.

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But it had containers for the nearby container wharf.

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[drron]

The petroleum wharf.

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Possibly the new wharf for larger cruise ships.

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Lyttelton town.

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Not sure if a new build or damage.road crews were working on the road above.

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A tug boat owner with an English sense of humour.

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[drron]

Sail away.

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It looked like we would finally get a good sunset.

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But the clouds rolled in and that was as good as it got.

 

[drron]

We awoke the next morning when docking at Picton.Just a short walk from the dock to town.it is a really beautiful spot at the head of Queen Charlotte Sound.

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Just a few nice buildings.

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We walked right around the town and were going to have a coffee but at all cafes there were long lines so we decided to go back to the ship.Through the War Memorial arch.

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