Christchurch — 7 February 2001

We ate a small breakfast at the Le Café in (surprise, surprise) the Arts Center, then went to the Art Center's Visitor's Center to buy tickets for the fudge tour. With half an hour to kill before the shops opened, we headed to the Information Center (Christchurch has a lot of centers) in Cathedral Square to purchase tickets for a winery tour for the next day. On our return walk, we strolled along the Avon River.

Back at the Arts Center, we wandered through the shops, went back to Le Café for lunch (light, delicious food) and headed off to Christchurch's Botanical Gardens. Unlike Wellington's gardens, Christchurch's gardens are on level ground. Both gardens are beautiful. Christchurch's gardens featured many ducks. As we sat on the bench at Peacock Fountain, we had a close encounter with two very friendly adolescent mallards (one ran over Jen's foot). We returned to the Arts Center for the tour of the Fudge Cottage — a cool look at a small operation run by friendly proprietors. We were spotted as honeymooners (must've been acting cute) and given an extra treat in addition to the fudge gift pack given at the end of the tour. (We should also mention that we had many, many samples during the tour, so this was a caloric tour de force!)

We burnt off 2% of the calories we ingested by walking back to the B&B. There, we dropped off our fudge, the yarn Jen bought in the Arts Center, and took some time to rest. Oh, and brush our teeth. We tried to visit the aquarium in the late afternoon, but it was closed, so we wandered around and opted to ride a punt (named "Kate") down the Avon as evening fell. Afterwards we strolled along the banks and saw many ducks, including one interesting cross between a mallard and an indigenous New Zealand scaup at Victoria Square. We returned to Annie's, where the hostess immediately recognized us from the night before. She also served us, providing fantastic food and wine. Jen had ostrich with beetroot on an orange potato cake and I had a pasta dish. After a long and wonderful meal, we strolled back to Orari to end the night.