Christchurch Sightseeing Day 2

Tuesday, 24.01, was our last full day in New Zealand and we went back into the city to explore even more. The alarm went off at 8:45 am and we left at 10:15 am to attend the free guided tour at the Art Gallery at 11 am. There wasn't much going on, as Andi, I, and a mother with her daughter were the only participants. But that wasn't bad because it allowed us to have a nice conversation. It turned out that the mother teaches Maori at school and her daughter is apparently half Maori. So they could tell us even more about the background of Maori art than the guide. That was really cool! Overall, we looked at pictures related to the themes of seafaring, nature, hair, and modern sculptures. The tour was very nice and personalized, we learned a lot about individual paintings and not, as is usually the case, a little about many. I thought that was something different and it could completely change the way you look at a certain artwork. At 12:10 pm, the guide ended our tour even though she could have told us much more. But that's always the case, right? :D

After the tour, we watched another show as part of the World Buskers Festival in front of the Art Gallery. This time, Basketball Jones performed, whom Andi really wanted to see, and we were able to enjoy our cheese sandwiches and sausages during the show. The performance was really good, he showed cool basketball tricks and funny performances. His show ended at 1:00 pm and we made our way to another venue of the festival after making a donation. Before that, we looked at the festival program and the descriptions of the artists and suddenly thought: we know him from somewhere! Actually, a certain Wacky Chad also had a show at the festival, whom we met during our bar tour in Queenstown. He was a very nice and funny guy who told us that he's a comedian and will soon be going to Christchurch for a few performances. It was really funny that we happened to be there as well and could see his show! When we arrived, the performance was already underway, but we still saw enough to realize that he's really funny and also quite talented. Who else does backflips on a pogo stick or rides a 2-meter high unicycle while telling jokes? After the show, we donated some money to him and checked if he recognized us. He did right away. After he packed up his stuff, he talked to us for a bit and we took a photo together. He also thought it was cool to meet us again and even invited us to visit him in Boston. Although he's hardly ever at home, as he travels around the world for his performances :D

At around 2:00 pm, we went to the Canterbury Museum, where there were various exhibitions on different topics. It ranged from a recreated street in 19th century Christchurch to the first human settlement of the country, Maori handicrafts, and the present-day New Zealand Air and the Paua Shell House, the home of a deceased elderly couple completely covered in shells. Overall, the exhibits didn't captivate me much and I felt that the museum was more for locals.

The Canterbury Museum is located right next to the Botanic Gardens, so we also took a walk there. I really liked the garden, especially the rose garden was super beautiful. It smelled so good there!

At half past 3, we went back to the festival stage in the Arts Centre, where we had seen Wacky Chad before. Now there was a performance by Aerial Manx, whom I really wanted to see. The guy was even crazier than he sounded in his description in the flyer, and he put on an incredible show. He juggled fire sticks, did backflips and contortions, balanced a ball so skillfully that it looked like he was a gust of wind and the ball was floating in it. He swallowed fire and swords, and in the end, he actually did several backflip while the sword was stuck in his throat. Insane. Even Andi was more than impressed at the end and was glad that I insisted on watching the show. It was really great that this festival was taking place in Christchurch during our visit. Despite the many construction sites, we felt that the city was cheerful and inviting and we were very entertained.

After the show, we went back to the Art Gallery at 4:15 pm to see the rooms we hadn't seen during the tour. Some of them were quite interesting, but we unfortunately didn't have enough time to read about them properly as the museum closed at 5. After that, we made our way home and made a stop at a souvenir shop to buy a small souvenir for our Australian host families as a thank you.

We arrived home at 6 pm and prepared our dinner of fish sticks with fries. After dinner, we took a shower and then it was time to pack, as our departure was scheduled for tomorrow. It's crazy that our time in New Zealand is already over. We have experienced so much and seen so much that the trip feels both incredibly short and long. In any case, all the driving was worth it and we enjoyed every adventure. Only the weather could have been a bit better here and there.

By the way, as a little fact at the end: in the 17 days, we traveled 4,300 km with our campervan. And in the whole 23 days of our time in New Zealand, Andi and I ate over 3 kg of cheese together. That's quite interesting :D