Go carts and Botanical Gardens, Christchurch

Last photo of Big Blue taken in Doug's driveway with Cass Bay in the background.

Gregory loves the go carts! Supa Karts Indoor Raceway, Christchurch

Speed Racer

Mike and Doug ham it up before take off.

Mike finished with the fastest lap time.

Gregory is the cheering section.

Air Hockey with Doug

Doug pulls in to the pits.

A beautiful coffee

We love this t-shirt display rack made from a bike.

Interesting table made out of palettes. Doug thought it might be Rimu.

Kereru (Wood Pigeon) at the Botanical Gardens

Arbutus Tree (We used to live on Arbutus Ave. in Chico, California.)

Eucalyptus ~ Food to the Australian Koalas

Cypress

Bonsai

Breathtaking Begonias

"Rio" Begonia

"Angela Jane" Begonia

Fountain at the Christchurch Botanical Gardens

(Above) We stopped to admire the view of Cass Bay (where Doug lives) and Doug decided to wave at the tour bus that was passing by... (Below) We are sharing an evening with Doug's neighbors Jo and Alex. Doug looks a bit scary here but he is just being the kooky Scotsman that he is! Alex and Doug are both dedicated cyclists so we are showing them pictures from our cross-country tour of America.

April 9, 2010 (continued)

After we were finished taking care of selling the car, we addressed Gregory’s priority for the day and that was the indoor go-carts (Supa Karts). He drove about 25kph (15.5mph) in this terrific racing cart for about 15 minutes and had a blast. Of course he wanted to go again when it was all said and done! Mike and Doug got to ride in the big boy carts and about 5 other people were on the track with them (whereas Gregory was alone). It is just the way things worked out with others walking in the door. Mike got the highest lap speed at 19.793 seconds and Doug came in third with a time of 20.817 seconds. They were both fired up after this and getting tips from the track owner about how to increase the speed. Of course they had to point out that having others on the track slowed them down… Doug was about ready to go again.

We had a lovely coffee and lunch at the “Jailbird Coffee Shop” (Addington Coffee Co-op) as Doug called it, with their t-shirts screen printed with a little man in a striped jailbird costume.This is a regular stop for him and I can see why. The atmosphere is very relaxing and the coffee and food divine. I had a delicious roasted veggie sandwich, Mike chicken ciabatta, Doug a walnut slice (as in a slice of cake) and Gregory a fruit smoothie and bagel. We loved the t-shirt rack that was made out of a bike that was sawed in half, flipped upside down and a bar inserted between the two halves.

For me we went to the Christchurch Botanical Gardens. I know we only scratched the surface with an hour and a half but it was absolutely amazing. The massive redwoods, cypress, eucalyptus, sequoias, spruce and other trees were grown from seed! The hot house with begonias was so exquisite I could barely drag myself away and I indeed went back a couple of times. We also marveled at the bonsai and cactus exhibits. I didn’t want to leave. I thought I might like to be dropped off for the entire day tomorrow.

Back at home I whipped up some of my black bean burritos for our host Doug while he got in a two-hour bike ride. We had a nice dinner and then spent the evening visiting with the neighbors Alex and Jo. Alex is a cyclist (as well as Doug) so they were interested to see some of our pictures from our ride across America. They are all such enjoyable company and we had a great visit.