Hopefully, this is our last day in Christchurch. We are scheduled for a shuttle pick up tomorrow at 5:45 am with a check-in at 6:30. If all goes as planned, we'll be on a plane bound for the "Ice".
Today, was a rather lazy day. We'd originally planned on going to Lyttleton to the coast and walking up the hill with the gondola. Instead, there was work to be done this morning, and Jean Pennycook and I walked down to the Cathedral Square and watched the Christchurch Christmas Parade. Some say it is a snapshot of what Britain was like in the late 1950s - early 1960s. It was quite entertaining with a wide mix of entries. There was everything from the Canterbury Accordian Association with about 25 accordian players, (playing very well, I must say!) to ethnic groups from around southeast Asia. Many of the floats were themed around fairy tales and nursery rhymes; there was Jack and the Beanstalk, Beauty and the Beast, Humpty Dumpty, Pinocchio, Cinderella, and Snow White and the 7 Dwarves to name a few. Interspersed amongst these were very random floats and groups such as a haunted house complete with scary music and Darth Vader and some Imperial Storm Troopers! They even had a very large firetruck from the Christchurch International Airport driving through spraying the crowd with their roof mounted hose!
I'm not sure if I'll be able to post some videos, but I'll try. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera on me at the time, so all I have of the parade are videos.