Following the most enjoyable day in Dunedin in near perfect weather we sailed overnight to arrive in the Port of Lyttleton which is the gateway port to the city of Christchurch. The seas have settled and there was very little movement overnight and we both enjoyed an excellent night’s sleep.

We then arrived at approximately 8.00 am whilst we enjoyed breakfast in the dining room located the aft of the ship (Botellini Restaurant). We departed the ship at 9.30 am and queued awaiting transfer. All are well organized.

There was a degree of apprehension as this is our first visit to Christchurch since this beautiful city was devastated by the Earthquake almost a decade ago.

We also want to see what has occurred to the beautiful old Cathedral and the famous City Square area.

We were bussed into the city and dropped off in an area that we were not familiar with, but it turns out it was only some 300 metres from the Square and a short walk to the Christchurch Tramway. Jeanette didn’t want to walk so we quickly purchased 2 all-day Tram passes. We boarded the first tram and enjoyed the wonderful comments and we traveled around the circle. It brought back wonderful memories but also disclosed how much of this city had been devastated and then bulldozed with in excess of 1200 buildings demolished.

The Cathedral is a massive work in progress with major structural steel girders positioned with concrete supports to support the roof as the whole Cathedral is rebuilt. The whole city s managed under a revised architectural policy to prevent any subsequent earthquake activity. this also emboldens a philosophy of restrictions on building heights with most buildings now being 3-storey heights with specific earthquake planning controls. There remains much still to be redeveloped. The Cathedral is emblematic of the scale of the rebuild and redevelopment.

We then changed trams and slowly moved through the art gallery precinct and at the bottom alighted ad walked across to the beautiful Botanical Gardens. We walked along several of the pathways. It is just a beautiful day.

Had an ice cream, then boarded a tram back to the drop-off point, where we walked some 250 metres to where the shuttle buses were located. It has been a superb day, we remain shocked by the scope and scale of the destruction and the rebuild..

The shuttle delivers us back to the port and to the area where our Grand Princess is berthed. We are back on board at 3.30pm, then have a cool drink and go back to our suite .

We depart Christchurch later after a slight delay. The forecast is for a light swell before we run into heavy winds for our day in Wellington.

There are also discussions and advice from the Captain that our visit to Napier is likely to be under threat of cancellation under the pressure of a storm cell at the top of the South Island of New Zealand. So we sense the weather is likely to be changing from what it has been to date.

However to conclude these first several days including our visit to Christchurch have been just beautiful.