Sunday was our day to explore Christchurch. We were super lucky with the weather–it was 70 degrees and sunny, which is not normal for this time of year.

Christchurch suffered horrible damage (and 185 deaths) from an earthquake in February 2011. It measured 6.3 on the Richter scale and was an aftershock to a 7.1 earthquake that occurred in September 2010. The latter did much less damage; the aftershock was shallower and centered closer to the city, and the city’s buildings had been weakened by the earlier quake. Some of the buildings in Christchurch have still not been repaired, and there are more new buildings than old ones in the city center.

We did all of the tourist things in Christchurch. We took the historic trolley ride around the city and then rode a bus about 15 minutes out of the city to take a gondola ride up to a lookout with gorgeous views (and sheep).

Then we went to the Quake Museum, which was very interesting.

Next we did a bit of shopping for warm clothes, because we are going to have some cold days ahead of us, then headed to our last tourist activity, Punting on the Avon (River).

After our boat ride, we took a walk around the city. They have a lot of nice street art.

They have the second largest playground in the Southern Hemisphere. I think Arthur will be ready for the slide soon!

After exploring the city, we had a really great Mexican dinner and an early night, because we had an early train ride on Monday.