When you think of places to spend New Years Eve, Geraldine is probably not at the top of the list. When we were planning our trip we’d intended Geraldine as a halfway point between Hanmer and Queenstown … that was before we noticed our mistake and embarked on the Christchurch detour. As a result we had a fairly leisurely day planned to get us the 140 kilometres down the road. Thankfully, the strong winds that we’ve had in most of the coastal places seemed to die down today, so we started the day with breakfast at Cafe Bunsen, which is in one of the old University buildings. The food was excellent, but on the downside the sparrows and seagulls also like it, so one must guard ones food.
It was at this University the Ernest Rutherford developed his ground-breaking theory on the makeup of atoms (a central nucleus and a orbiting electrons) which formed the basis of more extensive atomic research leading to the understanding of nuclear fission (splitting atoms). From breakfast we sampled a small part of the Botanic Gardens, which have very colourful flower gardens, on our way to the museum.
The old Curator’s House occupies a corner of the gardens. It was built in 1920, replacing the original house that was built in 1872. The last curator that lived in the house vacated it in 1984, after which the house remained vacant until 2000 when is was converted into a restaurant. It is now a well-regarded restaurant serving Spanish Tapas.
The Museum is next to the gardens and of particular interest to us, was the National Geographic Top 50 photos exhibition. This was a showcase of some great photos taken in remote parts of the world and sometimes in very trying circumstances. Many of the photos were taken on film, so Adobe Lightroom to fix up crappy photos! From there we went to the Christchurch Art Gallery.
The gallery has a good variety of traditional New Zealand artists as well as some modern works. I particularly enjoyed a photography exhibition by Ann Shelton called ‘Dark Matter’ particularly where she did some interesting mirror images of paired pictures, including one of the now abandoned Seacliffe Asylum that Deb remembers visiting some years ago, when it was still operating. There was also a collection of work by Jacqueline Fahey which features scenes of conversations. I liked the content, but wasn’t so enamoured with the style. Overall, a great space and very enjoyable.
We left Christcurch after the gallery to make our way towards Geraldine. We stopped about an hour down the highway for lunch at Rakaia which is well-known for it’s Salmon.
The area was originally settled in the 1850’s bit the first bridge across the very wide Rakaia River was built in 1872. There was a ‘Bridgekeepers hut’ on the southern end of the bridge. His job was to ensure bridge users made the crossing in good time and man the gates, so the bridge could be closed an hour before the next scheduled train arrived. These days the railway has a separate bridge and the last of bridge-keepers left in 1939.
About 20 minutes down the road is Ashburton, the last reasonable sized town before Geraline, so we stopped to pick up supplies for our New Years Eve platter. It is a tidy place, but little was open for a coffee except the Irish pub. There are some nice gardens and old church in the centre square.
The gardens had a large population of bumble bees, which I don’t recall seeing at home. They buzz quite loudly and seem to like anything sweet. I tried my macro mode to take a picture of one.
It was another half an hour to our lodgings at Geraldine, which is in a well-appointed B&B with nice gardens. The wind came up again this evening, so we decided against any further exploring as we’ll have a fairly big day on the road tomorrow… and hopefully a few drone stops on the way.
Until tomorrow!
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