Day 1 – Christchurch and Akaroa

Started our first real day right at C1 Espresso with coffee and food. Solid products were delivered by pneumatic tube, which was a first. Excellent coffee, also.

We followed this up with a leisurely stroll around the centre of Christchurch.

Thumbs up!

Leah showed off her skill as an Airbender.

Trams!

The amount and variety of murals was impressive.

Suitably impressed by the local urban planning and surprised by the lack of interpretive signage, we hit the road toward Akaroa via Governors Bay.

We dawdled our way along this route enough to have to stop for lunch in a tiny town called Little River. Excellent pies, and some quite delightful art in the gallery.

Akaroa is a lovely small coastal resort town. We arrived a bit late in the day to take in the view from one of the higher sites. We visited the light house, and then wandered through the nearby “Garden of Tane”.

We were accosted during the walk by some extremely friendly fantails. We suspected that they were pretty used to being fed by tourists.

The drive back was just as nice, though a little more businesslike. That night’s dinner was at Won, a Korean karaoke restaurant. We had such fun that we made a massive faux par and forgot to take pics of our meal.

We made up for that oversight with dessert at Rollickin Gelato. It’s easy to hit your macro targets with places like this around.

Finally home to crash, ready for a decent trip inland tomorrow.