Today has been another great day! We started with an excellent breakfast and moved on quickly into Christchurch to attend morning worship at the transitional cathedral - known as the cardboard cathedral because it is constructed of cardboard tubes! The old cathedral was destroyed in the earthquake 4 years ago, when we were here last time. This new one has been built temporarily until a new permanent one is built.

Christchurch Transitional Cathedral

It was an emotional experience to worship in this cathedral as we had worshipped in the old one just 9 days before it was destroyed and chuckled at the notice about what to do in an earthquake! This cathedral is bright and modern and was pretty full this morning. We intended to meet up with Trudy and Derek Westmore at the cathedral as they have just arrived in Christchurch and after the service all six of us were going on a dolphin cruise. However Trudy wasn't feeling too well and although they made it to worship they felt it best not to come with us afterwards. Derek didn't want to miss an opportunity for a photo for Basildon Bonding though and we all lined up outside the cathedral - watch out for April's edition of BB!

Waving goodbye to Trudy and Derek we set off on the fairly long journey down to Akaroa to meet Steve's cousin Kay, her husband Ian and daughter Miri. Here we were told that it was very rough outside the harbour and if we wanted to cancel we could. John, being a poor sailor, bailed out but the rest of us were determined to go, as were Kay, Ian and Miri.

Kay, Ian, Miri, Clare and Joan ready to depart

Kay had some Sea Legs which I took but decided not to eat lunch! By the way, it was a beautiful day - warm and sunny - in the mid 20s. We had a great cruise, mainly in the harbour but also out on the sea, where we saw Hector's dolphins and albatrosses! The dolphins really small compared with the ones we see around the UK - only about 1.5m long with a Mickey Mouse ear-shaped fin and bi-coloured. They followed the boat in twos and threes and despite being tossed around by the waves, we got some good views of them.

Looking out for dolphins (no photos I'm afraid
but I did get some video)

On returning to dry land, Joan and John went off to do their own thing  while we went with Kay, Ian and Miri. We had a drink in a cafe and then walked round Akaroa Bay. This is a most attractive place, especially on a lovely summer's day and we enjoyed the opportunity to see some of its sights. We then had dinner of fish and chips - or as the Kiwis say fush and chups! (we had a bit of a chuckle this morning too when Craig - our host - wished us a good trup!)

Then we bid farewell to Kay, Ian and Miri and immediately found Joan and John eating dinner in the next restaurant along!
We drove back to and through Christchurch, still using our inadequate maps but managed to navigate to our accommodation without too much trouble! We haven't really seen much of the centre of Christchurch but the little we have seen reminds us of bomb sites. There is still much land lying empty having had the rubble of buildings removed and many buildings bearing the scars of the earthquake. We intend to explore further tomorrow.