We had the pleasure of exploring Akaroa, just outside of Christchurch, with our friends, Faye and Ian. We visited some of their favorite bars, enjoyed Blue Cod Fish and Chips, art galleries and another delightful place, The Giant’s House (above), an art gallery and garden filled with whimsical mosaic sculptures created by artist Josie Martin, who still lives there.

The mosaic artist and horticulturist, Josie Martin obviously had fun creating the garden. We all had fun posing with her sculptures.

Christchurch is a wonderful city, that has been rebuilding after the disastrous earthquake in February 2011. To this day, there are still unresolved insurance claims, so damage from the 6.2 and 6.3 magnitude quakes is still visible. Most of the city is relatively new. We saw the Bridge of Remembrance (lower-right), a war memorial dedicated to those who died in WW1, WW2, plus subsequent conflicts in Borneo, Korea, Malaysia and Vietnam. Throughout the town were e-scooters strewn haphazardly on sidewalks (center-right), and we found this throughout the big cities in New Zealand. We have read about the business before, but had not seen it in action. There were public art in the form of ceramic elephants (center-left), all designed by a variety of artists, throughout the central business district. The charm of Christchurch is shown with the retained old fashion red-color, pay telephone booths (center) that are still operable. The bridge (top-right) is a view from our hotel room in Launceston.

In Akaroa, we watched a working port loading wood logs from a coffee house that Ian and Faye loved. We then visited a wonderful art gallery next to the coffee stop, where some unique art is displayed.

We were impressed with the quality of the street art throughout the city of Christchurch. In fact, Christchurch is now ranked as one of the global street art capitals, ranked alongside New York, Barcelona, London, Berlin in the Lonely Planet book. After the 2011 Canterbury earthquake, many artists started painting the murals (born out of tragedy) to bring back color, joy and optimism and help rejuvenate the city.

Celebrating our 51st Anniversary in Christchurch, New Zealand at Soul Quarter, where they were playing jazz in the background while we ate dinner.