I've been in Christchurch for 2 weeks and really know nothing about it yet. It's a very British city - the centre is full of victorian and gothic style architecture and it is well kept. The heart of the city is cathedral square (the square that surrounds the cathedral). It is a beautifully ornate Anglican church. You can climb 2/3 of the way up the steeple for views of the city but it costs like $12. Welcome to tourism in NZ.

The botanic gardens (about 2 blocks from the square) are another focal point of the city. They are pretty big and popular. I've just used them as a strategic duck watching position (something I haven't done all week!) and there are sports fields surrounding them. They're really well kept. Between the square and the gardens is the arts centre. It's in the former University of Canterbury buildings which are gothic and all built around courtyards. The buildings are full of independent artisans shops & studios, as well as a theatre and cinema. On weekends there's an awesome market there filled with art, crafts, food and the occassional bit of tourist crap (but not much).

There's a tram that runs through the city centre for tourists. Well its for everyone, but I don't think locals would be caught dead on it. It would be like one of us visiting Lucy Maud's birthplace. I haven't gone on it yet - again, $12 for a short tour. Yikes. You can just walk the path it goes around and figure everything out. If you're cheap like me anyway. And you remember to watch for trams.

That's really all I know about Chch at this time... hopefully soon I'll get around to seeing more. I went into the art gallery today but soon realized I wasn't in the right mood. So then I went to join a walking historical tour but it started to rain. So I went shopping. I had nowhere else to turn. Actually one of the great things about NZ is that the shops all have huge canopies to cover the sidewalk (footpath) from the frequent rain. Very considerate.

On the work front, my week went really well. Some of the people actually knew where PEI was because they deal with the Summerside Honeywell office on a regular basis. No work yet for next week, but the week after I'm back at Doorways (where I was for the 2 days last week) for an ongoing basis. I'm starting to feel like a prostitute with regular customers.

Speaking of that, I just learned that prostitution is legal here, having only been made so this year. Massage parlours and gentlemen's clubs have always been legal but they are now trying to restrict their operations to only certain parts of the city. Just in case you were recently pondering the NZ sex laws.