Downtown Christchurch and the Avon River. The river branches out into many small streams throughout the city, then comes back together to empty into the sea in Christchurch bay. This place is simply lovely.

We went down to NZ to play volleyball. We had set up a tournament on the base and wound up with quite a good team; so the bosses decided to challenge the Antarctic Support Facility team in Christchurch. We went down there and found them no contest, so we were scheduled to play the University team which was bound for the Olympics.

While there, we toured the coast south from Christchurch towards Dunedin. Here are four pictures of a hamlet, harbor, bay and beach-town along the way. I can't remember their names as I've lost any notes I might have made.

The main downtown cathedral. Note the ancient cars still in use in these days. I think that's a model 'T' parked in front of the church. The import duties were so huge that no one could afford a new car so they just kept the old ones going and going and going. An antique car lovers paradise.

Left is the bay of Christchurch. A lovely long beach. This was taken at low tide so one could walk out to the rocks in the bay.

We also were fortunate enough to tour up into the glaciated areas, seeing many beautiful mountain scenes like these.

We slam-dunked the University team, by the way, and I certainly hope they played better at the Olympics than they did against us; or at least had more fun.