[NZ Day 8] Christchurch

We spent our last two nights of our holiday in Christchurch again; it was the nearest airport to fly out of. At the very least, it gave us the opportunity to explore the city properly and relax after all the fun of Queenstown. Choosing one thing each that we wanted to do before we left New Zealand, Matt chose the Air Force Museum (he is very into military history) and I chose the Botanical Gardens (for pictures... pretty self-explanatory ;P).

Admittedly I wasn’t (originally) very excited about visiting the museum, but I was proven wrong by the end of our time there – there was a wealth of history about different planes and engines, the pilots and support people, and a guided tour of the restoration hangar where people were actively getting WW2-era planes into flight condition (pretty cool). To be honest, when we were on the flight home I was thinking about the engines and technology a little differently due to our visit.

By the time we wandered around the gardens, it was past 4pm and most of the exhibits (ie, the Greenhouse) had closed so I had to be content with peeking through the windows [and wishing I had a polarising filter for my camera]. I was a little disappointed by the lack of flowers out – after all, it is Summer – but there was a very fragrant rose garden, next to beds of dahlias and hydrangeas.