The sad saga of the Christchurch Arts Centre...

A little while ago I googled 'Craft shops in Sth Island NZ' and printed out the resulting list. One store listed really piqued my interest...Cashmere Quilts. It was listed as being in the Christchurch Arts Centre. We found this on the map and then tried to drive there. It was difficult as so many streets were closed. But eventually we got there and what a magnificent building it was!!! Apparently it had originally been the Christchurch Boys School. However as we drove towards it, this is what we saw...

Yep! you guessed it! Earthquake damaged and still closed for repairs... but on the other side of the road I saw some stalls in the makeshift boulevard markets... so Mary and I went for a browse while our men folk went to explore the rest of the street.

The photo is a bit dark but here we are looking at some lovely wooden Christmas decorations. We found some delightful treasures to buy here...it's amazing how versatile shipping containers can be...

Then the 'boys' reported back to us saying they had found the museum...and it was open! So we ended spending  a very pleasant hour or so there.

here we are having a rest in the gallery which had displays of early Maori culture in NZ

 Now we've moved into the displays featuring European settlement...

DH just couldn't resist trying out the penny farthing!

My BIL and I are looking in the old shop windows...

That amazing blue willow set had me intrigued...there was a tap on the pot

beautiful old china

 The beautiful old dolls' house in the Toy Shop

There was a special exhibition in the museum featuring Scott's expedition to  Antarctica. We watched a fascinating movie of a number of expeditions to this continent, especially the Scott, Shackleton and Hillary expeditions. Below is one of the vehicles used in Hillary's expedition. 

By now this group of Senior citizens was starting to tire so we headed back to our motel to rest up before venturing out later for dinner at the Casino -)