Christchurch, New Zealand

I've never been to New Zealand, but I've known people from there and people who have moved there -- two recently moved to Christchurch. Today's NASA image-of-the-day is
a satellite photo of Christchurch. The geography is quite amazing -- that little bump of mountains right there on the ocean.

I had to see a zoomed out map, for comparison so I checked out Google Maps for Christchurch.

Then I went looking for the tourism web page and whaddayaknow? It calls itself The Garden City (whereas Victoria, BC calls itself The City of Gardens).

Of course, what virtual vacation would be complete without seeing the city through locals' and visitors' lenses over at Flickr?

Oh, and according to statistics on the Christchurch City Council website, the average house price (for the quarter ending March 2006) was NZD$272,821 which is about CDN$205,673 (USD$182,364) -- less than half of the going rate for a single family house in Victoria (CDN$510,059 in August 2006).

Alas, I suspect we will be staying here in Victoria until we are fabulous, with time for real travel.


tags: New Zealand, armchair travel.