Clang Clang Clang Went The Trolley

February 15

New Zealanders know how to make scones. Cheesy ones with spring onions seem to be the most popular and Child Sister went one step further by adding chunks of roasted potatoes. Yum. Plus, the coffee was so good Mitch had a second cup. A great start to the day.

A quick stop at a convenience store on the way to the gondola station left me stunned. The cashier looked like he was in prison!

Tucked behind a metal cage, he told me there was a lot of crime there (here? in this tiny little town outside Christchurch?). I wonder if we’ll see this set up in other convenience stores around the country.

After breakfast we headed to the gondola station. Figuring we would bypass the line if we bought the tickets the night before, we proceeded to wait on a 45 minute line to board. This was not efficiency in the making.

The views were really pretty when we got to the top of Mt. Cavendish. We had a birds-eye view of all the places we had been during the week, which helped put it all in geographic perspective.

We are completely aware of the fact that we did things out of order here in Christchurch. Traveling around the city on the tram is something you would normally do on the first day of arriving, to get the lay of the land. We saved it for the last day. Oh well. Still, we enjoyed the tour in the 1926 Melbourne tram car and the commentary from the conductor.