Museum Day in Christchurch, NZ

We followed the river from the Christchurch 9/11 Memorial to the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna O Waiwhetu. Everything in New Zealand is represented by both English and Maori, though an on-going struggle, to this outsider they seem to be decades ahead of the rest of the world in recognizing the people who lived on their land before white people "discovered" it.

The side of the museum spells out: Everything is Going to Be Alright in neon. It kept catching my eye as we rode the tram at night, but I was having troubles finding the building again. The side looks completely different from the front, or at least enough different to confuse me.

The front

The side

As we entered the lobby we had a lovely chat with a 20-something local docent whose eyes lit up when we said we were from New Jersey. It is her dream to go to New Jersey. Not New York. Not the United States in general. But New Jersey.

I must have had a giant question mark over my head at this point because she explained her boyfriend has gotten her into bands from New Jersey. Oh, like Springsteen and Bon Jovi? This youngster had never heard of those bands, she meant classic rock music like My Chemical Romance, Descendants, and Mofits. Don was able to say something coherent about City Gardens and how a lot of bands got their start in Trenton. I was itching to google the bands. They are bands from the early 2000s. My Chemical Romance (MCR) was highly influential at the beginning of this century in pop-punk and emo genres. 

Chalk this up to I learned something new that day.

The museum had late hours, so we stayed past sunset.

Te Ra: the Maori Sail

There were a couple of highlights in the museum. The first was seeing the 200-year old New Zealand Maori moon sail that is usually on display in the British Museum. It is probably a footnote in Great Britain, but here is received the place of honor as everyone passed it before moving to other rooms. It is only on display through October 23.

Upstairs was a large section dedicated to artist Robin White who is a Bahai from New Zealand who created massive collaborative works with people throughout the Pacific region. We were mesmerized by a video watching her work. In it she says, "all art is a gift of the holy spirit, it is an attribute of God. When you are creating, you are contributing to an attribute of God." That struck with me.

Robin White self portrait

Collaborative work

As we were getting ready to leave, Don noticed this large weaving and noted it looked familiar.

Yes, it is also by the Mato Aho Collective who made the giant weavings we saw two days earlier in Te Papa in Wellington.

As we closed down the museum we were ready for dinner. We walked ten minutes to the other side of town to dine at The Church Pub, a new brew pub in Christchurch. It is located inside the 1875 Trinity Congregational Church, an Gothic revival church that was severely damaged in an earthquake. It has a long history of being the place for reinvention. It was a restaurant for a small time in their history. The new owners, who also own the Irish pub next door, installed a wood-fired oven and make the best pizzas this side of Italy. The relationship with the bar next door became evident when Don asked them for a dark beer and he was told to take the passageway through an atrium, past the shared bathrooms to the bar next door.

I had a "Rose Chapel" pizza with chicken thighs, craisins, brie, pine nuts, raw arugula, and rosemary. See why I don't order pizza in the states?

Following two years of renovations, the owners elected to leave many church elements in place, including the organ which is behind he bar, and pews. The often have live music, and is a rare place that is open late in this sleepy town. May it succeed!

Yes, I sat on a pew

I don't normally like pizza, but I loved theirs

The organ

We ended our brief stay in Christchurch with Rollickin' Gelato. We bounced between the two locations trying to figure out which one had the best flavor combination, deciding on the one that also had a large indoor seating area. It was a nice night, but quickly cooling down. Back in Wellington, I was advised to have some Hokey Tokey Pokey ice cream because it is unique to New Zealand.

Superman Choc

Hokey Tokey Pokey

Orange Choc Chippy

We packed up our bags and set the alarm for 3 am for a 3:30 am Super Shuttle pick up. My glasses were still missing, but it was time to fly to Australia.