Our late-night event of the previous day turned out to be something less than we had hoped. The Dark Sky Project offers midnight trips to the observatory, where trained guides lead a stargazing tour through the southern sky. Unfortunately the weather, which has been so friendly to us for most of the trip, chose not to cooperate on this night — we had near 100% cloud cover overhead. As a proxy, we were offered a “virtual” stargazing experience in the planetarium. Better than nothing, right? It covered some of the same ground as the tour we had taken earlier in the day, only in more detail with a very knowledgeable guide. We now know two different methods for finding polar south using the stars. We also learned about some of the Maori constellations, including one called the Eel, which stretches across half the sky, and which you can use to tell when the fish are in the right stage of their life cycle to be harvested based on what parts are visible above the horizon at a given time of the year. Orion, which appears upside-down in the southern hemisphere, is sometimes seen as a butterfly (pūrerehua). Alternately, the three stars of the belt are sometimes the base of Tautoru, the cookpot.

After our late night, we slept in as long as we could before checking out of our Airbnb and hitting the road. Christchurch was our destination, but along the way we made sure to stop for brunch at the Fairlie Bakehouse, another great recommendation from Alison. This modest-looking shop has become famous for their pies (see photo at top), and had a line out the door the whole time we were there. We sampled three of their wares: bacon and salmon, which is exactly what it sounds like; Christmas turkey, which included gravy and cranberry with maybe a hint of stuffing, and vegetarian, which included multiple vegetables and egg. All three were encased in a flaky pastry crust decorated to reveal what was inside. Delicious!

While in Christchurch, Susannah will be attending a conference on engineering education (AAEE2024) that was part of the motivator for this trip. So she headed off to the opening event while Nick spent some time planning solo activities for the next few days. Unlike most conferences, where the opening reception is nothing more than an event with hors d’oeuvres and perhaps some drinks, here they held a full traditional Mihi Whakatau (Maori welcome ceremony) for all the attendees, which included songs (Waiata) in Maori, one of which all the attendees sang together. Fortunately they had a chance to practice in advance, and there were enough ringers present to help with the pronunciation and tune.

For dinner, we met up with Helena, a former student of Susannah’s who is now working in Christchurch. She selected an excellent taco restaurant, and we met her parents who were also visiting. On the way back to our lodging we passed by part of the Avon River (Ōtakaro) and through Hagley Park, where we saw some pretty sunset clouds.