More Christchurch adventures ..

Kinda nice to be in a relatively big city. So many things to do and see, so little time. The weather has not been great, but fortunately we have not been rained out either.

We visited the farmer's market at Lyttleton yesterday. It is quite a nice farmers market with great food (and good coffee also) and some good produce and fruit. Unfortunately we are not staying around for too long and have a relatively long drive back, so we could not stock up as we would have liked to. We got some great bread (baguette and foccaicia), some brie cheese, cilantro pesto and tomatoes for picnic sandwiches. We also munched on scones, pies and an eccles cake for breakfast. As in most places in NZ, there was an excellent playground next door so we hung out with the kids and other parents for some more time. By this time, PJ was super tired and needed a nap, so we headed back to Living Space and put her down. Mari and Cecile went to the Arts market in the square while I entertained Maya at home.

Later the evening we visited the QEII leisure center in New Brighton. The have a pretty good pool for toddlers including a wave pool. Mari entertained the kids in the nicely heated pool while Cecile and I went for a quick run along the beach in New Brighton. The weather was overcast and foggy, so it was not a very scenic run. But we did get our exercise for the day. We wrapped up the day with a pretty good dinner at FishMongers. We had the grilled Akaroa Sallon with Salad, a grilled mahi-mahi with tempura and the family portion of fish and chips. Overall it was a pretty good place and not as greasy as most regular fish and chips places.

The weather outlook was not very promising as we walked for our morning dose of caffiene at Vivace Espresso. Quite a few locals rate this place as the best coffee in Christchurch. The coffee was quite excellent and we'll be back tomorrow on our way out :) The muffins were moist but a bit bready, but the almond cake was quite delicious. We decided to chance our luck and headed out to Akaroa. The weather gods were smiling on us, it was warm and sunny in Akaroa. We stopped at the visitor center and book the Black Cat Akaroa Harbor Nature Cruise. Akaroa has a pretty good playground next to the beach (obviously!), so while the kids were playing there, Mari and Cecile headed into town to explore and buy some delicious croissants from one of the gazillion french bakeries / cafes.

Mari, Cecile, Maya and PJ went on the harbor cruise. Since we had done the same cruise last year, I elected to take the Heritage Park hike for the next couple of hours. I met up with them after the cruise and we lunched on some delicious BBQ Salmon and Lemon Fish Ciabatta sandwiches from a stall near the wharf. We also had some paua patties from the local fish and chips shop (since it had received excellent reviews in general and specifically for it paua). I suspect paua is an acquired taste. Its supposed to be abalone, but did not look or taste like abalone to me ..

We are headed back to Christchurch tomorrow. I suspect we'll stop at a winery and potentially Hanmer Springs on our way home. We'll try to do a yum cha (dim-sum) meal in Christchurch before hitting the road ..