Slept in a bit and had a late breakfast. We opted to use a shuttle bus direct to Christchurch. This took us from our port of call at Lyttleton - a hill and harbour town reminiscent of Albany - straight through the hillside 1km tunnel and into the plain on the other side. Arriving in the city we pottered around the central square and adjoining shops. There was a street performance in progress, some kind of escapalogy act. Certainly a lot of souvenir shops in that area - more I think than I've ever seen anywhere.
We wandered along the tiny Avon river - familiar to both us but still quaint and pleasant. An operation of taking tourists for a punt on the river was doing steady business. Past some more shops - Lee spotted a good Sale and bought a cardigan.
In getting around the city we certainly saw signs of damage from the recent earthquake. Some small building spaces were by now completely cleared. Quite a few old brick churches had missing apexes and/or had supporting braces and scaffolding. On one building, which was clearly an old facade with a new high-rise inside, one wall had clearly become separated from the main structure and appeared ready to fall! I presume someone had worked out that it was safe thay way! I noted that the older old brick buildings, which had more irregular bricking patterns appeared to have survived well.
Then we had coffee and biscuits in a food hall built over the bus station. We caught a local bus heading to Lyttleton that would drop us off for the "Gondola" cable car ride. The "Gondola" took us from the base of the mountain to the top of the ridge where we had a view of both sides. Alas there was still a lot of cloud about and we only had a limited view of the nearby peaks and almost none of the distant peaks and bays. While at the top station we sat in on a mini ghost-train style ride that went through a combination of video screens and scenic installations. Depending on your perspective these were either natty or naff - I felt they were well realised even if the general concept was aimed at a child audience. Nevertheless, back in the cafe/souvenir shop, looking a large map of the area I could better understand the volcanic nature of the peninsula that gives Lyttleton its harbour and separation from Christchurch.
Back down the hill in the Gondola and a bus through the tunnel into Lyttleton and then a shuttle out to the ship. As with almost every port since Auckland the docks are busy with containers and pine logs and we weren't allowed to walk through them. We overheard some people being told that many of the logs get put onto factory ships on which they are processed en-route at sea. We were back in time for afternoon tea at which we compared cruising notes with a couple who had done Russian and Italian cruises in Asia, Europe and NZ.
We stretched our legs for a while (promenading) and relaxed in the library. Then we sat in on the tour talk for the next day's port of call. There had been one of these for each landing and they could be seen either live in the theatre or later on the TVs. For these, the resident "Port Lecturer" John Lawrence gives a slideshow and advice commentary both for people doing organised tours and those making their own shore stops. Tomorrow we'll be on our second ship's tour for this trip. On a cruise we usually do about half our shore visits using that way but as we've both been to NZ before we didn't see so much need.
After dinner we took in the song+dance performance in the theatre - a medley of songs made famous by Billy Joel, Neil Sedaka, Liberace, Barry Manilow and Elton John. It was a bit surreal seeing Las Vegas / New York showtune styles applied to the gritty lyrics of "Saturday Night's Alright" (really about a bogan's violent night out). But hey, there's "blood and a single gunshot" in Copacabana so who am I to quibble?
A cocktail/mocktail in the adjacent bar afterwards then up to the buffet for dessert. Another promenade and then back to the cabin to unwind and write up these notes about how demanding life is on board a cruise ship!
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