BTFF (Back To the Future Friday): Christchurch, New Zealand circa 1989

I'm resuming my story about my trip to New Zealand in 1989, as a Lion's Club Int. exchange student.

To read more go here, here and here.

My first of three two-week home stays was with a family on the South Island. They lived in Christchurch, one of the biggest cities on the South Island. They had a daughter the same age as me. It was quite strange, she had stopped going to school but went back for a few days just so I could go with her and see what her school was like.

I haven't kept in touch with her, but I wonder what she is doing with her life. Back in 1989 she was looking forward to being on "the dole" (their public welfare system). Quite strange actually, because her Mum was a Kindergarten teacher...so you would have thought that they would have been more insistent on her finishing school.....whatever!

One of the things I loved about Christchurch was the Gothic architecture. I had never seen buildings in this style before, and I was just fascinated. There are many buildings like Christchurch Cathedral that can be found in Cathedral Square. I got a little snap-happy there. You can see more of these photos on my flickr page.

One of the things I did while in Christchurch, was go to Akaroa and take a Harbor Cruise. You can watch a quick video clip on this web page of the cruise I took.

A couple of other fun adventures I had (besides getting drunk for the first time) were going to a Gothic graveyard, seeing a giant hunk of jade and meeting the Christchurch Chief of Police. The Chief even let me take over for him for a few minutes! Now isn't that scarry??!!













* I had six entrants into the Photo Contest #1, tomorrow I'll post the winner, links to everyone who participated and topic for April's Photo Contest.