The market was nestled in a recess of a hill. It was packed with families shopping. There were musicians playing while we shopped and even though it started to rain no one seemed to mind. There was everything from soup to nuts and we were offered tasty samples of most everything.
Everything is the market was organic.
THE CHEF WAS EXPLAINING THAT THESE PURPLE CARROTS ARE THE
NATURAL COLOR OF CARROTS BEFORE WE CHANGED THEM TO ORANGE.
Of course no trip would be complete without someone from the ship lending a helping hand. Here 2 of the crew held wipes should our little hands get dirty from touching the veggies.
WE BOUGHT A COUPLE OF DELICIOUS BAGELS FOR OURSELVES
We spent about an hour with the chef as he made his purchases. At one vendor he bought all the fish he had, and at another vendor all the cherry tomatoes he had. Only one vendor refused to sell him all his beans because he needed them for his regular customers. Had he been polite in his refusal it would have been one thing but he was quite rude to the chef.
We left the chef to go back to the ship and we wandered on our own. We went into a small antique shop and there was a really unusual carving on the wall. Here it is. The salesgirl called the owner and found out that it was from Papua, New Guinea. This was later confirmed by another shop owner we stopped into. She was from Papua herself. The carving on it is spectacular of a crocodile and a mask. Will fit perfectly in the house - the cost $45. WHAT A BARGAIN!
We crossed the street to a pharmacy that was a post office as well. We were going to try and ship it but they did not have a box big enough so we just lugged it with us all over Lyttleton and Christchurch.
We were hungry and stopped at a store to eat fish and chips. It was delicious! It was served in paper and you had a choice of about 5 different kinds of fish she could use. We chose sole. I don't know what she used to make the batter but it was perfect!
By this time it was noon and we had to be back on board by 5pm so we hustled along the main road peeking into stores and Len taking photos. We could hear the most beautiful violin music all over the main road. We thought it was a record but as we walked along we came to this man playing an electric violin. He had the most brilliant blue eyes I have ever seen on anyone and he had the crowd mesmerized with his playing. I bought a CD of his music.
To get to Christchurch we had to take the shuttle back to the ship and get on another shuttle. Though we had time we were a little worried about the time it would take to bring the carving back on board so we just transferred to the other bus carrying the carving. Lyttleton and Christchurch are 2 different cities. Lyttleton has about 6,000 people and Christchurch about 600,000. We had to take a very long tunnel under the mountain to get into Christchurch. This city too is spotless. We came to a huge park where there were performers on Saturday. This is done often during the summer. People were sitting on the ground watching a variety of acts. One fellow created a painting during 2 Elvis songs - using only 3 different colors of paint.
We had no idea what he was painting until the 2nd song stopped and he rotated the canvas upside down
and it was the face of Elvis. Fabulous!
PLAYING A GAME OF CHESS IN THE PARK
By this time it was getting late so we headed back to the ship via the shuttle. The ship pulled out on time
and we lay down for a nap. When we awoke around 8pm the ship was ROCKING AND ROLLING.
Not just a little, a lot! We were warned to stay off the open decks so we sat in the room, had a small bite to eat and I took a pill. We went through the night with the ship rolling however the pill did it's work.
Tomorrow Port Chalmers.
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