October 28, 2006

Christchurch to Sydney

Simply a non-eventful day…

I wandered around the center of Christchurch enjoying the street performers, arts fairs, and the smells of open air market foods. A real treat was the vintage street cars, complete with outfitted conductors.





After cruising the native crafts market I decided to buy my first piece of jewelry, a Maori carved bone necklace. Every tourist and their mother seemed to have the bone fishhook or spiral. What caught my eye was a cylindrical totem of sorts. After asking the young girl what it meant, she replied, “God of love and protection”. Perfect, I need both. Interestingly, the Maori people believe in a multi-dimensional but single God, which is very similar to the idea of the trinity but with many more personages.



The other find, not in the market but in a store, was a Merino Wool and possum fur blend pair of gloves. New Zealand possums don’t look anything like that rat creatures of the Northern Hemisphere and their fur is akin to a mink’s. These gloves are soft and extremely warm. Huge recommendation here! (On second thought, the full gloves probably would have been the better choice but the thought here was to use them when dexterity is a must.)



The flight to Australia was great, with Qantas completely over-delivering on service and amazing quality of food. Qantas is quickly becoming my favorite airline. I arrived in Sydney just in time to see the sun set over the train station campanile.