Yesterday we spent the day touring around Christchurch.  

We started off at The Canterbury Museum, which taught us a lot about New Zealand’s native people, the Maori.  The story is pretty typical, unfortunately.  A native people who were doing just fine, then the Europeans came along and mucked everything up.  New Zealand certainly has done far better relationship-wise than the U.S. with the American Indians or Australia with the Aborigines.  Still, inequity between whites and non-whites does still exist.    

The Maori are a fascinating people.  There wood carvings and weaponry are intricate and beautifully crafted  Their tattoos are fierce and intimidating.  I felt like one could spend an entire visit to this country just learning about their culture.  The All Blacks, New Zealand’s rugby team which is somewhat of a national obsession, do a Maroi war dance before games.  You can see it on YouTube.  Maori culture permeates this land.         

We also learned more about the earthquake.  Much of Christchurch is built onto eroded rocks and sand from the Southern Alps.  Thus when the earth moves all the rocks below easily move around, and liquefaction is common.  Another interesting fact, New Zealand is just the top part of a much larger continent which sits below the Pacific.  The continental shelf here is huge, and in ancient times more of the land was above sea level. 

Then we toured Christchurch on it’s one working trolly line, saw the Cardboard Cathedral, and saw the greater Christchurch area on a gondola ride up to the top of Mt Cavendish.  Quite a view.  Our last meal here was a Mexican joint on Victoria Street.  They make a mean margarita.

Thus concludes our journey.  I want to thank all of you for opting in and letting me write and share pictures, two creative pursuits I enjoy.  I’m flattered so many of you were interested in what I had to say.  As I said at the beginning, if you want any full size copies of any of the pictures, just send me an email.  (Chad and family, I’ll send all the pics to you guys via a jump drive soon.)  If you missed any blogs, there is a link below where you can read past ones.  I’ll keep all this up for a few more weeks.         

We arrive back in the U.S. Saturday at 130 PM EST.  We land in New York around 9 PM.

My mother always says home is a place you’re glad to leave and glad to come back to.  While this has been a trip of a lifetime, I will be glad to see NYC again.  

Again, thank you all for coming along.