It’s a bit odd, after three weeks in a small bus with 14 other people and a schedule to keep to, it is again just me. Two of the group are still in Christchurch and I am going to the airport tomorrow with one of them as we are on the same flight to Sydney, but neither of them are actually in this hotel. And talking of hotels….. this is the Cotswold Hotel. It has tudorbethan half timbering, leaded windows, suits of armour on the stairs to the dining room, stocks by the swimming pool, the sword in the stone (!) outside reception and the blocks have pub signs with the names of Henry VIIIs wives.

Today I have been to a place called Lyttelton just outside Christchurch at the invitation of Maria (Mrs Herbie) who runs a stall in the market there. Nice little town – the original European settlement in the area apparently – with a working port doing wood and containers. Market was very nice and would have been nicer if I had a house / kitchen to put the stuff in. Lots of babies and dogs, including one (a dog, not a baby) that goes to the dog treats stall every week. When the woman that runs it wasn’t there, he sat determinedly in the space where her stall usually is and had to be dragged away.

Going back to Christchurch I went on a tram trip round the town and had coffee in the botanical gardens. All the towns we have been to have really good sized parks, usually laid down by the original residents at a time when it wasn’t a given that all UK towns had them. (The first civic park in the world was opened in Birkenhead in 1847.)

Off to Australia tomorrow. This trip is galloping away from me….