mrsjono

On my 102^nd day in Christchurch, I walked from Hagley Park South via Riccarton Ave and Harper Ave to Hagley Park North. Along the entire stretch of Harper Ave, there were trees upon trees of cherry blossoms. No matter how I tried, my photos could not capture the thick volume of the flowers.


Spring is finally here.

Michelle and Prof Wong offered to give us a ride to the airport in the morning. This gave me time to wash my laundry so I could have a clean GJ shirt to wear on my first day of work tomorrow. 45 minutes flew by and it was time for him to go home. As I watched his SQ aircraft waiting for boarding, I felt a mixture of immense pride and sadness.

跃过火车轨道
跳过一条深沟
冲过快速公路
为了就是买世界上最好吃的饼干回家!

Wandered around in a huge pine forest before my evening shift. I stayed on the main roads as I was worried I might get lost and human traffic in the forest appeared sparse. The paths inside the forest were quite well marked and all I had to do was to find the next marker and I know I should be right. The trees were damn tall and straight.

It's my off day again and I decided to check out the Lincoln Farmers Market, situated in a remnant piece of L-shape land tucked in between a pharmacy and residential dwellings. Excellent use of open space and a great opportunity for the community to get together. It's a small and vibrant market with good country music, local produce and food. There was a scarecrow competition today and everyone was invited to vote for their favourite scarecrow.

Results were announced at 12 noon and guess who won? Recycle Girl came in third in the children category, Sally (first row second from left) won the adults category and the black cat with pink coat (first row first from right) won the people's choice category. Prizes were sponsored by local shops. The organising committee donated a gift hamper to the main sponsor who initially wanted to donate it and later agreed to auction it. A man won a lucky draw (the prize was a big cookie) participated in the auction and also won the auction with the last bid of $50. The main sponsor donated his $50 to a local primary school. Love the way this community supports each other.

Sumner was the starting point for today's walk to find out what Taylor's mistake was. The Flowers Track was closed due to the earthquake so we cut through Nicholson Park and then found ourselves walking along the coast to Taylors Mistake. Turns out that it's a beach and a few maritime incidents in the past have led to this interesting place name.

It took 4.5 hours return. This was the furthest we went as I had to go back for the evening shift at TPT.