It’s a Small World

Sunday in this beautiful land. We ate oatmeal, hashed the Sunday School lesson and generally had a relaxing start to the day before heading out to see what local Canterbury had to offer.

Mud or poop? That is sometimes a little blurry in a two year olds mind. We were deep in the magical woods near Windwhistle, taking a trek up to Washpen Falls. The trail, which had been dry suddenly turned muddy and Kindi Lou freaked out. No amount of convincing words made a difference. The trail was poop. Final decision.

Deadly mushrooms abounded, some as big as dinner plates. Strange birdsongs filled the air and the huge trees stood like silent ghosts. Water dripped off boulders as we skirted cliff edges and hanging mosses sponged it up. The trek is on private land and the owners maintain the trail. I cannot imagine the joy of that in my backyard. It was a 4km round trip hike, with high views over the plains, then plunging back down to to the gorge to see the falls themselves, a little lake with a rowboat you could mess around in, and more woods and birds and mud/poop. A perfect morning romp.

The weather is perfect for harvesting, so Zach had to run as soon as the hike was done. The rest of us lallygagged around the house, napping and basking in the sun, possibly getting sunburned.

When all were refreshed, we hopped into the car and headed for Christchurch City Center with it’s old buildings, Riverside Food Market, the Avon River with its ducks and eels, and hopefully street performers. It was too late in the day for the latter, but the Market didn’t disappoint and we ate a exciting variety of food, including but not limited to Nutella Crepes, wontons, stone fire pizza, loaded chips, etc.

Christchurch had two massive earthquakes, one in 2010, and another in 2011. Lots of the city has been rebuilt, but there are still some old buildings, especially around the breathtaking Botanic Gardens. Camille had bragged up the Rose Garden and was suddenly worried it wouldn’t be all she’d cracked it up to be, but she hadn’t told the half. It felt like stepping into heaven almost. A round, well trimmed hedge circled the garden, and you could smell them as you walked up to the entrance. Roses arched over the path and the whole thing was absolutely breathtaking. We oohed and aahed and poke our noses into a hundred gorgeous blooms. Kindi Lou walked away from a rose and said “bye, gorgeous”, so even she was getting into the spirit of things.

Another impressive thing in the park were the huge redwood, fir and gum trees with their twisted trunks or drooping branches. There are massive trees in this part of the world. CA certainly doesn’t have monopoly on the redwoods, as I had assumed.

We were all pretty tired as we drove home, but not too tired to enjoy the huge harvest moon rising. We picked up Zach, met his manager then came home to literally collapse into bed.