Christchurch immediately feels great: historical buildings, wide streets and cycle lanes, huge parks, cafes and restaurants, people punting down the river, an amazing botanical garden - it's not named the garden city for nothing.
I spend a few days here, visiting the museums, enjoying the scenery, people watching in Cathedral square, jogging in the parks.
It's my last day of having the car, we've driven nearly 5000km in the last 4 weeks - not bad considering there were quite a few days we didn't really use it. I take a scenic drive to Arakoa - the most French town in New Zealand due to early settlers. If the British hadn't colonised it a couple of years before the French were going to then South Island could have been French. Arakoa is yet another lovely little town, on a great bay on the Banks Peninsula. Quaint little houses, French named streets (rues), trips to swim with the dolphins and freshly BBQ'd fish sandwiches on the jetty - delicious.
I really like Christchurch, it's one of the few cities i feel i could live in, and that's saying a lot.