Punting on the Avon, Christchurch

Punting always makes me think of the Mary Poppins scene where they are deciding which chalk drawing to jump in to. Burt says "Punting on the Thames" and makes a gurgle, gurgle, pop sound.

It doesn't really sound like that, in case you were wondering.



Wave to the crazy lady standing on the bridge!



See, I'm not the only one snapping photos of random things.



Christchurch is known as the garden city and it's full of the most amazing old trees.



We chose to do the garden tour which is 30 minutes through the gorgeous gardens of the inner city.



You share the water with the local ducks. Actually these are the Paradise Shelducks, a whole family of them. In the front is the mother, then father and trailing behind are all their quite grown babies.

It seems to be one of the few cases in nature where the female is more distinct/colorful/eye-catching than the male. Well, except for humans in which this is almost always the case. Right? Right. Just agree with me here.



A tall Maori carving. To be honest there doesn't seem to be much of a Maori presence in the South Island. The detailing on the carving was really gorgeous.



As we glided through the water we would catch glimpses of the historic buildings Christchurch is made of.



You can just feel the history here.



We passed under bridges and weeping willows.

On the sides of the bank there were occasional steps and ramps. When Christchurch was first established they would use this shallow river as a way to haul their goods. The land was too soft and the terrain to uneven to take their wares to the trading place in the middle of the city. Instead, horses pulled boats or barges up the waterway and stopped by the bank to be unloaded.



The guides told us bits of information and answered any questions we might have. I could have stayed on this much longer than 30 minutes.



After we took a walk through the gardens nearby and wondered what it would be like to live in an area with buildings like this. It made me want to go exploring back home.



Its like a scene from a book.



In this picture I am actually standing and looking straight forward. Everywhere you turned there were trees like this. Trees with great branches that reached the ground. Around the base of the trunk were wrought iron benches.

How wonderful would it be to sit and read a book here?



We ended our walk at this local pub. It was so inviting we couldn't resist.

Are there old, historic buildings by you? Do you ever go visit them?