Franchise For Sale » Franchise For Sale Christchurch

The voice of the airline's captain crackled over the PA system: "Ladies and gentlemen, the runway has been cleared of sheep and we are about to land at Christchurch International Airport. Please set your watches back 35 years. Passengers going on to Dunedin and Invercargill please report to the Air New Zealand chicken counter."

Chicken counter?

Is that the one with the old hen behind it?

I sought a translation from the flight attendant. "Check-in" counter! That's what he said! Of course. Kiwis pronounce the letter "e" like an "i."

I had no intention of going further. From the air Christchurch looked very inviting. The English style patchwork quilt of farmland on the Canterbury Plains stretched almost to the western horizon. Here majestic snowcapped peaks rose abruptly, reminding me of Samuel Butler's Erewhon, inspired by this very vista.

To the east, a very Pacific Ocean lapped gently on endless beaches of golden sand.

English gentlemen, who were determined to reconstitute Victorian England in the Antipodes, founded Christchurch in 1850. In fact, someone once said that if an English nanny and an English butler were to sit down and design a country they would come up with New Zealand.

Christchurch is known as the most English city outside of England. Here you will see punting on the willow-lined Avon, red buses and schoolboys in straw boaters and white cricket flannels.

Curiously, the Avon River is not named after the Bard's Stratford stream - even though it was initially called the Shakespeare - nor after the Avon in Christchurch, Dorset. Scottish settlers outvoted the English and named the river after the Kilmarnock Avon, which flows into the Clyde.

Today Christchurch is more commonly referred to as the "Garden City." Fully 30% of the land is designated as public parkland or recreational area. Right downtown is the beautiful 180-hectare (450 acres) Hagley Park. Immediately adjacent are the Botanic Gardens covering 30 hectares (75 acres).

Dominating downtown Christchurch is the Gothic Cathedral of Christ, built in 1856. The height to the top of the cross is 65.5 meters (215 feet). Don't leave Christchurch without visiting the Arts Center. The buildings date from 1879 and housed the original University of Canterbury. Since 1978 the Christchurch Arts Center has been a focal point for artists, craftspeople, musicians and performers. Over 10,000 people visit the site each week. They come to film showings, theater and ballet productions and to receive tuition in dance, music and painting. Others come merely to browse in the book, music and craft shops or to eat in one of the superb ethnic restaurants. Over 60 organizations have rooms in the Arts Center and individual studio space is provided for about 70 artists and craftspeople.

Bruce Burnett, has won four Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Gold awards for travel journalism. Read more of Bruce Burnett's travel writing on his websites: http://www.globalramble.com/ and http://www.bruceburnett.ca/travel.html

Source: www.articlesbase.com