Friday, September 12, 2008

My Kiwi Experience!: Christchurch (Day 2)

On this wet Sunday morning, we had breakfast at a cosy cafe that had a large fish tank and a friendly cat. I have a feeling the person who runs this joint loves cats as she uses pebbles painted with different cats to identify her table orders. Creative.

We explored the city of Christchurch on this day, starting with Cathedral Square. It is what the name indicates - a square with a cathedral. As it is a place of worship, we were not allowed to have photographs taken, although there were quite a few shutterbugs happily snapping away.

The next place we visited also does not allow photographs to be taken because the animals are nocturnal. And they were so cute! We were quite lucky as when it was our turn in their enclosure, they were actively running around chasing each other and busy looking for food in between cracks of trunks and in the ground. These flightless birds are non other than the famous kiwi birds of New Zealand.

Petra then took us for lunch at a cafe housed in the old University of Canterbury campus. They actually do occupy one of the old lecture rooms, equiped with a fireplace and all. Snazzy... oh, and the salad that Petra ordered was yummylicious!

Right opposite the room we were in was the Rutherford Den. Does that ring a bell? Yup, it's the great scientist, Lord Ernest Rutherford whom we studied about in high school. The den was were he actually did his experiments and found out the things we learnt in school. Cool, eh? There's also the lecture hall where he studied and lectured:


Don't you just love the old charm the place is oozing? All the sandstone and granite... ahh... so English...


Why doesn't Macquarie have stairwells made of timber and stained glass like this:

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