christchurch by day pt 1

today i got up at 7am. i'm still jet-lagged. however, i do like getting up early. breakfast was cereal, not very exciting.

to day i explored christchurch. in all honesty, not terribly exciting. i wandered round the city, and through the botanical gardens. very pretty, but no flowers in bloom as it's still winter. great waste of time that was. well, not really actually. wandering through the gardens was incredibly relaxing. i know there were no flowers, but so much green. for a city boy like me, green is like gold-except lighter and makes rubbish jewelery. however, i do like being round foliage and bushes and so forth. which is a luxary (i've tried many permutations of this word but can't find the one that is correct, although this seems to be the most correct looking. i'm sure luxary has an 'e' in it somewhere-not sure where though) i don't have in the not so big city of leicester.

i took a tram ride today. round the city. quite rickety, very noisy, not so interesting, but it saved my legs from having to walk back. It did take me past the casino (new zealand's first) which i may have to frequent tonight. i then took a bus ride - yes i know what you're thinking and i really did take a bus ride. i'll keep the ticket to prove it. it's strange that whilst i'll nearly never take a bus (i would consider taking the train) in the uk, i have no problem taking buses when in foreign. i'm still not sure why. what did amuse me was that on riding the buses (one there and one back), i noticed that NZ also has it's fair share of crazies that ride buses.

rode a cable car up to the top of a hill. it was a steep hill and i don't like heights, and i especially don't like cable cars. they don't seem as though they should be able to work. it is after all, a big metal box hung from a piece of string. i think the part i particularly dislike is that there's nothing underneath except the ground - which is a long way away, and the way the thing sways in the wind - and when you jump up and down or move from one side to another. Of course you have to jump and move around just to make sure it will sway, like jumping up in a lift and making it wobble.