Day 13: Monday, March 3, Christchurch

Christchurch Cathedral.

Today we checked out and looked around Christchurch some before leaving. Our hostel was right on a square with a nice church that looks like it had been transplanted from Scotland. The whole town had a very British feeling to it – not surprising considering the original population. (We walked by their Avon River where you can go punting.) It was also a short hike from what used to be part of Canterbury College. The buildings are now shops and assorted other things. The set of buildings and quadrangles were just like Oxford – again, not surprising since it was modeled after British schools. One of the buildings was a small museum to Ernest Rutherford. NZ is quite proud of him (he’s on the NZ$100 bill along with a graph of radioactive decay) for winning the Nobel Prize and being an all-around science big-shot. (NZ is also very proud of Edmund Hillary.) Rutherford went to Canterbury College and the museum included a place that he used to do some of his first experiments as well as a math lecture room where he had some lessons.

From my lecture at Canterbury College in Rutherford's old math classroom. My talk was entitled, "Theoretical Implications of the Heisenberg's Uncertainty in the Electromagnetic Properties of Top Quarks."

Afterwards we went to the International Antarctic Center. It was a decent (but expensive) museum. Besides just having interesting exhibits, there was a room kept at -8 C that had “storms” with lower temperatures and 60 kph winds. I survived an Antarctic storm with only minor frostbite, but we lost John to hypothermia. Those of us that survived also saw a penguin rehab center. They mostly have Blue Penguins (what we saw outside of Melbourne, read about it here) but all have something wrong with them. They have one blind penguin who sings to locate everyone (like playing Marco Polo) and got the name Elvis. They also have one that got some disease and couldn’t walk; it is recovering, but it stumbles around like a bad drunk. (Penguins wobble when they walk anyway, so drunk-looking penguins are quite hilarious.)

Quick! Is this two-lane undivided or one half of a four-lane divided? Who knows!

We then headed out of town towards Fairlie via a scenic route. I’m not sure how long it would have taken us if we drove straight through, but you would have to be blind to not stop regularly and enjoy it. Definitely the best inland drive we have taken so far. (We also saw lots of hedgerows.)

We had dinner at a café in Geraldine, a small town (I’m guessing population about 200). The café was much nicer than I would have expected to find in such a town, however. It had plenty of character – red and lime green walls and purple counters that were done in such a way that they didn’t quite clash. It also had a skylight with a toy snake and a couple of toy spiders on top.

A view from our drive.

In miscellaneous news, toilets here (and in Australia) are different than any I have seen elsewhere. Except for old toilets they all have two flush buttons. One is a “half flush.” I guess it saves water, but I usually can’t tell a difference.

Also, graffiti (or “tagging” here) is a big here. There is a lot of it in cities, it is a popular topic for newspaper letters-to-the-editor, and we even saw it on barns and other buildings in the middle of nowhere during our drive.

To add to my previous comment about their healthcare, the cartoon on the editorial page of a newspaper today showed two guys holding a third guy up and saying

Fraome 1: Two guys hold a third guy having a heart attack and say “HELP! Is there a doctor in the house?” “No- - we have to get him to a hospital!” Frame 2: the scene pans out to a room of sick beds and a guy says, “Oh, wait… we’re already at one.” Apparently they admit their healthcare system is slow.

A sunset during our drive.

In the same paper was this gem on p. 2 of the main section: “John Kirkpatrick takes Golden Shears crown.” I would find you the link, but since I’m not online I’ve typed up excerpts:

“John Kirkpatrick snatched back the coveted Golden Shears crown in a frenetic finals showdown. After a six-year wait since his last win, Kirkpatrick, 37, of Napier, blitzed the field at the 48^th Golden Shears international shearing and woolhandling championships.

“Event commentator Koro Mulilins told a full house of 1500 people at Masterson’s Memorial Stadium on Saturday night that the event was the highlight of the shearing year. …

“The stadium noise rose to fever pitch as Kirkpatrick swung into the long blow on the 20^th and final sheep and roared as he shot it through the chute at 15 minutes and 35 seconds.”

There you have it, folks. A blow-by-blow account of the thrilling competition between master shearers. I don’t understand why rugby is the national obsession when you have something like this. (FYI, this guy was on track to shear almost 80 sheep in an hour; I may not be enthralled by sheep shearing, but that is still impressive.)