New Zealand: Day 24

Gold rule

January 26, 2013

Another gorgeous day with deep blue skies, almost no clouds, and a very comfortable temperature in the low 70s. The only notable feature of the day's weather is that it was quite windy.

Today was a day of transition and leisure. The 23-day coach tour ended with breakfast this morning (which I skipped so that I could sleep in, an opportunity I hadn't had since arriving in New Zealand at the beginning of the month), and the next tour, a nine-day Lord of the Rings tour, began this evening. Nothing was on my schedule for the day other than to move from the hotel where I had rested last night to the bed-and-breakfast where I would be staying for the next two nights.

However, one important task had to be attended to: the acquisition of a t-shirt from the Christchurch Harley-Davidson shop. This was the first stop I had the cab driver take me to when he picked me up at last night's hotel. As I had promised him, I was in and out of the store in five minutes. It does not take me long to select a unique shirt I like; the only problem is that many times the shirt I like best is not available in my size. I did not encounter that problem on this visit. I did learn to my horror, however, that there were two additional Harley-Davidson shops in New Zealand I had not visited! Apparently Harley-Davidson shops are in Hamilton and Palmerston. Well, that is one more thing to which I must attend when I return to New Zealand!

We returned to the hotel, retrieved my luggage, and then proceeded to the bed-and-breakfast. Although it was only noon by this point, the staff had been alerted to my plans for an early arrival, and they were prepared for me. It is a truly lovely bed-and-breakfast, very much in the style of classic B&Bs I had visited in England. The kitchen and dining areas were in a modern style, but the living quarters had an abundance of wood paneling and finishings. I was lucky enough to receive room number 1! It was a good-sized room, and I immediately was captivated by it. Even better, I had my own private bathroom, rather than a shared facility somewhere down the hall as found in many B&Bs. I wished I were staying here more than two nights.

Bed and breakfast bed
Home for the next two nights

It was time for lunch, so my hosts directed me towards the city center, a five-minute walk away. I found myself in the middle of a bustling street festival, with street performers, sellers set up in stalls, and mobile purveyors of a wide variety of foods. One, a seller of souvlaki and yeeros, had a particularly long line. I took this as a good sign, so I got in line. It was a only a short wait -- the folks behind the counter were really hustling -- and soon I had my felafel yeero. I made the mistake of asking for the hot sauce which was indeed quite hot, but I found a seat in the shade and enjoyed the meal nonetheless even though my eyes were watering. "Hot" was only the medium category; I could have ordered the hottest sauce, "chile" but I'm glad I didn't even though this is what most other patrons were requesting.

Christchurch has had the good sense of making the central street of its central business district a pedestrian zone, something San Jose, CA has done with success, and something San Francisco has considered. I think it is an excellent idea. It certainly brings a lot of foot traffic to the retail stores in the downtown business district, and what store wouldn't want that? It's the retail stores in San Francisco that are the primary opponents to turning Market Street into a pedestrian zone; however, I believe if they saw how well it was working in Christchurch, I think their opposition might diminish.

I couldn't resist buying some merino wool socks, especially after the merchant mentioned that I could wear them around the house instead of slippers. I had considered buying merino wool socks on several previous occasions, but stopped myself because their only real use would be for when I go hiking or camping, and I don't do as much of that as I used to do. But the idea of warm and comfy merino wool socks during the cold winters was an irresistible idea. He was a very smart salesman!

The B&B was less than a block away from the Christchurch Botanic Gardens, so I decided to spend the rest of my afternoon sitting on a shaded bench amidst the splendid scenery and the perfect weather reading one of the books I had brought along, Learning RFT: An Introduction to Relational Frame Theory and Its Clinical Application. I know: it sounds pretty dreary for vacation reading. However, the style of therapy I'm most interested in practicing is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT, said as the word, act, not aye-sea-tea.

The theoretical foundations of RFT and ACT are based on radical behaviorism, which holds that our thoughts, both overt and covert, our emotions, feelings, and what we say are forms of behavior just as much as what we do, and therefore they are amenable to the proven behavioral techniques that have been shown to be so successful for modifying our actions. It's great stuff, and it's cutting edge stuff, too. I'll be among the first ACT practitioners in my home town. I would be the only ACT practitioner in my home town if it weren't for the fact that a major Veterans Administration hospital is located there, and the VA has adopted ACT as its dominant approach to therapy, abandoning cognitive-behavioral therapy. I'm going to a four-day "boot camp" on ACT in March, so I'm doing this reading to be ready for the boot camp.

It was such a beautiful afternoon! It was hard for me to concentrate as I listened to the wind rustling in the trees, and I engaged in one of my favorite activities: people-watching. I had found a shaded seat near a kinetic fountain which, despite being made of wrought iron, can only be described as having a post-modern style. If one held down a little lever, the fountain would swing into action (but only for as long as the lever was pulled). One jet of water squirted at a circle of cupped paddles that had faces on them, causing them to spin like an anemometer. Another jet of water caused another wheel to spin, spraying water towards a figure rising out of the water reaching out to catch the water. I watched with amusement at the absolute delight this fountain caused for small children.

Kinetic fountain
Kinetic fountain
Kinetic fountain in action

The photography bug struck, and I went back to the B&B to collect my camera and iPad so I could capture the fountain and some of the flora on, er, not film, but would it be bits and bytes? My favorite subjects for photography are, in this order, landscapes, architecture, and flowers. Portraits are not my forte, nor are action shots. An iPad selection is below.

Orange blossoms
Orange blossoms at the Christchurch Botanic Gardens

Realizing that I would not be able to get any reading done in the midst of the activity and natural beauty of the Botanic Gardens, and really wanting to do some reading, I decided to return to the calm of the B&B, which was really not a bad choice. This was my day and my time, and I wanted to relax before resuming my schedule of being a busy tourist tomorrow. The Lord of the Rings tour -- deliberately -- was going to be an intense tour, with my days full of visiting sites where the films had been made. I also had the nerve-wracking adventure of driving on the left side of the road to look forward to, and that was sure to be a high adrenaline activity in its own right!

I had an exquisite dinner tonight at Fiddlesticks. My good friend Master Chef Carl Conway would have thought he had died and gone to heaven! I nearly died when I received the bill. I had a Charles Taylor 2012 Sauvignon Blanc (I've really grown to love New Zealand's Sauvignon Blancs), a crab terrine with carrot yoghurt, heirloom carrot and lavoshe for starters, and mushroom pappadelle, porcini ragout, garlic confit with gorgonzola crumbs for mains. For dessert, I had a beechwood honey parfait with pinot poached pear, anise and cherry shortbread. I resisted the port having already indulged myself so fully. The menu was quite creative, and the dishes artfully presented. This was indeed dining at its finest. All I needed to know was that everything was quite delicious.

Christchurch Convention Center
Christchurch Art Gallery
across the street from Fiddlesticks

Gold rule

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Last revised: August 27, 2015.

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