Yesterday, after getting my bike adjusted (the front wheel wasn't true), I biked into town, ate, purchased the requisite hot chocolate at a book café. The drink makers in Christchurch tend to serve hot chocolate with giant marshmallow confections. They look like big pastel mints. I wrote there in my little handheld computer and looked out on the walking mall, filled with loitering teens, much like Eugene's West Broadway before the road went through their concrete territory. When I left, it rained, and I ducked into the cathedral.
Christchurch is 7% Maori. The Maori make up about 20 or 30% of the rest of the country. I found it interesting that this engraving of a common Christian prayer, probably done in the mid-1800s on the walls of the cathedral, featured the accompanying Maori translation. I especially like the Maori translation for "Forever and ever."
The cathedral was undergoing construction, and I was amused by the mechanical crane contrasting with the flying buttresses.
The "Pacific Chapel" is the size of a shoebox. What does an accessman access? What is this man doing? Is he about to ride off and away from the cathedral in his mobile accessman ake, ake, ake?
En route to my bike, I ducked into the Canterbury Museum, which was only open for another half hour. The moa were large flightless birds, now extinct, which used to hang out with the Maori. Here is an artist's interpretation of a moa, which for some reason is tucking its neck over and around to protect an egg. It looks kind of pathetic really.
Next I walked through the Botanical Gardens and sat on this bench and watched the Korean and Japanese tourists saunter by.
The sun emerged.
Therefore, I took pictures of tulips.
3 comments:
All the more reason to hope that Bush does not bomb Iran!
Is the moa the brownish thing in the middle. Looks kind of like a rock?
Rain, sun . . . sounds like my hourly mood swings of late. Miss you and look forward to the next blog, my down-under adventurer!
Don't be lonely! Glory in the fact you're on the beach, but it's cold and rainy here in Eugene!
Thanks, gals. Lisa, yes, it's the thing in the middle. If you click on it, you might see an enlargement, if it interests you to see a paper maché wingless bird. :)
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