Christchurch

today I rode with Claire and Emily to Christchurch (~5hr drive), dropped them off at the airport and hit the town! It was my first solo adventure. All I did was take my Lonely Planet guide...and flew by the seat of my pants. After actually arriving in City Centre...40min after dropping the girls off that the airport...and actually finding a park (for the car)...20min later...I headed off to downtown! Although there is a trolley that loops City Centre, I decided to hoof it. The first thing that caught my eye was the super-quaintness of the city. I had read that the city had a lot of gothic influence while being built, it was no joke. The everyday bridges are beautiful stone with elaborate decoration. I passed by the Canterbury Provincial Council Buildings and later returned for a free walk-though were I took approx. 500 photos. The woodwork was incredible.I walked through the weekend market, but didn't buy anything. Christchurch, from what I saw, is a mishmash of modern arts and rich heritage. I'm definitely going to return and spend more than 3 hours!Drove home and froze, nearly to death, in the car. The heater in Emily's car doesn't work (or I couldn't figure it out) and even with the vent off cold air still blew in. I had a blanket over my legs, a polyprop long sleeve, two sweaters, and a bandanna. It took 30 min of holding my nalgene with boiling water inside for my hands to warm up. But on a really fun note, I had a blast driving on the left side of the road in a right-side-steering-wheel-manual-drive car! I didn't make any mistakes! And I parallel parked!