Wednesday 17th March - Cathedral Square

 Wednesday 17th March - Cathedral Square

Then we went to Affordable Caravans to see if they had a flexible hose extension for the Toilet Cassette pouring spout. They didn't but the helpful lady in there said to go down the road to Burnsco. We did that and found a hose that I think will do the trick, but it cost $30!

We also dropped of some Kowiniwini potatoes and Graeme and Kate's place, as we forgot when we went to dinner.

James had got in touch to say that he was going to be in Ashburton today, but driving up to the Christchurch Novotel near Cathedral Square and would we like to meet up for dinner somewhere. What a bonus!

So, in the afternoon we drove into Cathedral Square and tried to park in a Wilson's Public Parking area in Lichfield Street, which was just another name for a derelict earthquake site. We paid $9.30 for parking in there till 3:00am Thursday. It all worked fine until we wanted to print a receipt, because at that stage we thought that it was "Pay and Display". It baulked at doing that part of the process, so we rang up - not a good idea! In the end we decided that as the machine had our car's number plate we should be okay - hopefully. Never again will I use use a Wilson's parking area unless there is no other option.

We walked passed a really good multi-storey one called "The Crossings" that we should have used - too late!

Mary Ann first wanted to find The Justice Department building which was quite a walk down Lichfield Street. When we walked in we were greeted by three police officers doing a security check just like an airport! Once completed we found the Maori Land Court office. The receptionist Jasmine in there was really helpful and provided Mary-Ann with all the information and forms she would ever need.

With all that behind us we walked down to Cathedral Square - amazingly hard to find when you don't know where you are going - my phone had gone flat - but after asking a passerby for directions we finally got there.

The Cathedral although a mess still dominates the whole square and there beside was Turanga - the library where we were to meet James. 

Fortunately there was a coffee bar in there so we could sit down and wait for James to turn up, which he did.

He suggested that we go to The Riverside Markets 

- where there was an Argentinean eatery El Quincho that served nice food for a reasonable price.

This we did and the food and the service was great - beef burger for $18 and a Cassels APA beer for $8.