New Zealand: Christchurch

Christchurch, to me, is the most beautiful city of New Zealand. There are many nice buildings and places.

There are unique means of transport like the tram and punting. Of course these are not really used to get from one point to another but just for the fuun of it, but anyway.

One of the best places to be is the botanic garden. I spent christmas day there, watching the families having a picnic under the trees. For a european that was a very unique thing to do at christmas.

Another favourite place of mine was Cathedral Square. The cathedral itself is very impressive and the square is almost always swarming with life. There´s a chess game free for everyone to use, there are market-booths selling food, clothes and kiwiana, there are street artists performing and there´s the occasional prophet preaching to the people.

New Zealand: Dunedin

Dunedin (the scottish name of Edinburgh) was founded by scottish settlers. The weather here must have reminded them strongly of their home country. Even in summer it would almost never have more than 20° C here.

Dunedin was once (in the 19th century) the richest city in New Zealand and you can see the result of that nearly everywhere.

The train station (above) is said to be the 2nd most photographed building in the southern hemisphere, topped only by the Sydney Opera. I wonder who came up with that. I mean, who would count photographs being taken?

Top attractions in Dunedin are the worlds steepest street, the Cadbury factory and the Speights brewery (no picture of the last one, somehow the shots got somewhat jittery after the tasting).