I don't think so...

Well what can I say except don't mess with Brits and their card game! Happily ensconced in a Estimation Whist competition the barman decided that he was going to close the bar in the hotel at 9:15pm. We told him to rethink his suggestion! He came back at 9:30pm and said that we would have to leave as he was " not making any money"! The cheek! We ignored him and finished the game! Our dissatisfaction was relayed to the manager the following morning!!!! It's not as if they had many guests to be rude to!

We then loaded up once more and headed off across the Cantebury Plains towards the Pacific Ocean, stopping briefly to see the Gemstone Man, a bit of an eccentric who beach combs for a living and then tries to sell shells, stones, fossils, petrified wood, rock crystals and anything else he finds washed up!

It was then destination Akaroa, or to be more precise the harbour, to board a boat! Anything that mentions penguins and dolphins has my name on it! So off we went around the harbour and along the coast to see what we could find! The most obvious being two navy frigates! One French and the other Kiwi. They were partaking in some international exercise, but most of them seemed to be on cross trainers and exercise bikes on deck next to the helicopters! Although if you must exercise then what a view!

Apparently the Cantebury had been moored in the same harbour when the earthquake had hit Christchurch and their canteen fed all of the locals for 4 days.

During the boat trip we saw fur seals lolling on the rocks, Hector dolphins, the smallest of all dolphins, (we even briefly saw two mothers with their babies), and some blue penguins, again the smallest penguins. 

The town itself is rather odd as there are French tricolours everywhere, all of the shop names are in French and even the police had a gendarmes sign!! 

Back in Christchurch again we managed eventually to find the new Cardboard Cathedral. Given the destruction of the earthquake the guides all find it difficult to navigate the city as the usual landmarks have disappeared and they change the road system every 5 minutes! The new cathedral was designed by a Japanese architect, predominantly out of cardboard (the clue is in the name!) and the idea is to use it whilst the future of the old collapsed cathedral is decided. Just next to the cathedral, on waste ground, was a memorial to the 185 victims who died in the February 2011 quake, a chair for each person. So effective, and indeed affecting. 

On a positive note they have created a small shopping mall using shipping containers. Designed to get shops, cafés and banks up and running again, and also get amenities back into the centre. All brightly painted and with flowers beds in steel containers. I thought it looked marvelous, although one of the shop assistants said it was cold in winter and baking in the summer!

Apparently the site they are on is privately owned and they are expecting to receive planning permission for a development in March, so all of the containers and flower beds will be picked up and moved to a new site (there are now so many empty lots)!

In the evening we had our final meal with everyone, including Bernd, our German guide, and Don, our bus driver. There was time for one final card showdown and the following morning everyone headed their separate ways.

It's funny how complete strangers can come together, get along and generally bond over the unlikeliest of situations or mutual loves/hates. You can end up telling them, and they you, thoughts or feelings that you perhaps have told very limited (if any) people at home, and are perhaps more honest and open, because at the end if the day even if they do judge you the chances are you will never see each other after the trip (except obviously  the awesome ones, eh, Debs and Katherine ?!)