Charming Christchurch

Our hotel sat in the center of Cathedral Square of Christchurch so we spent a lot of time in the square. We toured the Cathedral where we were impressed by the detailed mosaic tiles on the floor and the solid wood beams lacing the ceiling. The outside of the building is very representative of much of the architecture throughout the city.

Christchurch Cathedral

After seeing the cathedral and walking the botanic gardens, we spent some time in the Canterbury museum and walked through Christ's College of Canterbury (which is actually one of the oldest schools in the city and is all-boys).

Canterbury Museum

We spent lunch in the square watching the various street performers (reminded us of Boulder back home!). The fish 'n' chips I had here was the best I had all trip! And what a deal at about ~3 USD.

Cathedral Square performer

Our first evening in Christchurch, we wandered around aimlessly trying to locate a non-thai restaurant that was open (and it was only 7 pm!), but we finally found Frommer's 3 star "find" called Winnie Bagoes (get it?). It's a pizza bar with a huge local crowd and a unique atmosphere to boot. The food (lasagna and fettuccine carbonara) was fantastic and the people were fun. We ordered their famous banana pizza dessert only to find out 30 minutes later that they were out. They refunded our money and gave us the blueberry/apple one for free. A group of older men who were celebrating their 20th year anniversary of weekly guys' nights here ran over to "share" our pie with us (it could've fed a dozen). They were super entertaining and friendly. The bachelorette group in the bar seemed to enjoy them as well. What a lovely taste of Christchurch!

Our last evening in the city, we ate dinner at a fancier place along the Avon River. The restaurant, Coyote, served up NZ cuisine with a Mexican flare. We enjoyed the lamb and steak as we listened to a local band at our firepit table. What a wonderful way to cap off our time in Christchurch-- our favorite city thus far!