Today we have had sun, beautiful landscapes and a dollop of culture to finish with! It has been fairly warm today and we have managed cropped trousers and sandals but it is chilly again tonight. It probably got to the low 20s this afternoon.

We set off this morning on the coast road travelling south from here to New Brighton and then on to Sumner. The latter was particularly badly hit by the earthquakes and a large part of the cliff fell down. You could still see some properties overhanging the remaining cliff. At the base of the cliff there were more shipping containers filled with ballast being used to protect the road from further falls. What would we do without containers?

The cliff at Sumner

The beach at Sumner has a big rock called Cave Rock which had been halved in size by the earthquake. The damage done by the earthquakes is staggering - wherever you go you see vacant plots or houses in need of repair. Even at the top of the gondola the nearby peak appeared to have lost a huge chunk of rock. A school at the foot of the cliffs in Sumner is still closed and presumably will stay so.

We tried to follow one road over to Lyttleton after this but found it was closed due to earthquake damage - but only after we had got some great views over to Lyttleton Harbour which is nearly as good as Akaroa!

View across Lyttleton Harbour

Our route took us past a suitable place for coffee though a bit more rustic than we have become used to! It was a riding stables with a cafe! Soon after this we found ourselves at the Christchurch Gondola and used our combined tickets from yesterday's tram ride to climb the mountain the easy way! The views from the top on this beautiful day were stunning all round. One way we could see to Christchurch and beyond to the Southern Alps and the other way Lyttleton Harbour.

Lyttleton port from the gondola summit

After this we went through the tunnel that takes you to Lyttleton and tried to find somewhere to eat. However Lyttleton is more of a working port and doesn't seem to have many eateries so we drove on a little further to Governor's Bay where we had our lunch at the hotel - and very good it was too! It did fall down over desserts though as it didn't have the one we wanted so we decided to try the chocolate cafe across the road. After all a chocolate cafe sounds good! The ice cream sundae that Steve ordered was totally underwhelming in its presentation but tasted quite good and my choc mousse was OK but nothing special - not even the choc spoon!

However we got a good laugh out of the ethos of the place which seemed to stem from a man called B and had a theory called Form Reality Practice! This didn't seem to flow into his desserts thankfully - whatever that all means! The cafe was called She Chocolat and the she bit stands for spiritual human evolution - we felt tosh was a better description!

We returned to our accommodation and had a quick paddle in the sea before setting off for the city and an organ recital at the new cathedral. This was by the organist of Winchester Cathedral and we thoroughly enjoyed his skill in playing the new organ.

Cathedral interior before organ recital

This is our last evening in Christchurch and we fly to Palmerston North in North Island tomorrow and say goodbye to Joan and John for a while - we will be staying with them in Melbourne in a couple of weeks. We are currently trying to pack and get our rapidly multiplying bags of stuff down to airline demands!