WEDNESDAY IN CHRISTCHURCH... ASHBURTON BOUND

 

Good morning, another wet Canterbury day is ahead of us.

First up...

ABOVE:  My right knee is still a bit of a mess.  Hopefully it will stop oozing soon.  Stew's knee?  Is holding up really well to our ventures.  

ABOVE: These were the three pieces of fabric I got at the first fabric shop yesterday.  

ABOVE: And these were the fabrics I got at Sew & Co.  I was pretty happy with this lot.

Someone mentioned a fabric shop further south of Christchurch, in Ashburton.  As it's only an hour or so away, we are going down there this morning.

After that, we plan on coming back, jumping on the tram and doing the city circuit.

So, that should take up the majority of the day.

Catch ya later.

ONWARD...

10.54 am.

ASHBURTON... and we are just leaving the quilt shop. What a shop! It's a small cottage converted into a shop. When we arrived it was JAM PACKED with ladies, no room to move! They were from Lincoln, on a day trip to quilt shops. 

So we stood back until they left, then had a look around.

The rooms were so full of fabrics, notions, patterns etc, it was almost impossible to see everything.  PHOTOS LATER.

ABOVE: I managed to find a bit of fabric. The shop owners taste in fabric was not really my taste, so I was surprised I did find some to buy.

But not too much.

It is now 11 am and we are heading back to Christchurch for lunch, then tram tripping.

ABOVE:  I think this was us going over the Rakaia River.  The bridge was almost exactly the same as the bridge in Bulls (Manawatu), but way, way longer.

ABOVE:  Annies Country Quilt Shop in Ashburton, bursting at the seams with ladies!

ABOVE: A gorgeous wood burning heater in the shop.

ABOVE: There were 4-5 small rooms in the shop, and how you could find anything in there was beyond me!  Just so much crammed in there.

ABOVE: the owner of the shop collects ... egg beaters!  I've never seen a collection of those before.

ABOVE: We went to PASTA PASTA again for lunch today, because the food is soooo good.  Stew had to eat half my lunch. The owner recognised us... and my jacket.

My jacket gets SO MANY comments, both men and women ask me where I got it, say how lovely it is etc.

One man tried to swap it for fabric yesterday!!!

I think he was joking.  Not too sure.

His wife certainly wanted my jacket.

ABOVE: On the tram, which was packed!

ABOVE: We got off at Regent Street... walked up and down, then got back on the tram.  It was a very pretty street.

ABOVE: Got off again at the Bridge of Remembrance.

I wondered what the guys (Stew included), were looking at?

 

ABOVE: EELS.  Huge eels all along the river bank, looking for a free feed.

ABOVE X'S 3:  The Bridge Of Remembrance. 

ABOVE: Who said "Don't go to Ballantynes"?  We went.

We had a delightful afternoon tea there...

ABOVE:  I bought some 'farts'.

ABOVE: In the downstairs Tea Shop.  So pretty, and lovely service.  Not that pricey either.

ABOVE: And again, Stew had to eat half my food, this time it was a delicious Apple Crumble Cheesecake.  He had an Afghan biscuit as well.

ABOVE:  I bought these two gorgeous dishes in Ballantynes.

ABOVE: We talked with the storeman about how we'd been told Ballantynes was far to expensive to go into.  He said not EVERYTHING was very expensive, but YES, some stuff was.

ABOVE: In the menswear department, Stew spied this lovely blue winter jacket.

ABOVE: And then we saw the price.  Yep, it stayed in the shop!

After all that, we came back to the motel.  I'm exhausted.

Time to lie on the bed and relax.

In a couple of hours I will sort out our luggage, in readiness for our early start in the morning.

4.45 pm and I am signing off REALLY EARLY today, as I want to get our packing done, and not have to worry about anything else.

Catch you all tomorrow.