Sumner Beach: What's that white stuff all over the ground?

Today is my last day in Christchurch and I took the no. 3 bus out to Sumner Beach to luxuriate in the sand.

Brief digression here about public transit (attention TTC!). The bus drivers here are super pleasant and helpful. Cheery hello to every passenger. And they have to make change for everyone getting on which means they have to work and do math (attention TTC!). When passengers get off it's a 'thank you' called out to the drivers and a hearty 'cheerio' in return. I guess one of the reasons New Zealanders are so nice is that everyone here is so bloody pleasant. A smile and a "how ya goin' there?" from everyone -- waiters, store clerks, the wine shop workers. Even the usually surly teenagers seem bright and chipper and polite. I am sure there is a seething underbelly here somewhere but right now I am happy skimming the smiling surface. Perhaps after six weeks of this I will come back a more pleasant person? ("Well, you couldn't be less pleasant.") Who said that?

Enough of my digression, let's get back to my day and what I ate for lunch.

Sumner Beach is really quite nice. The main road is a few streets away from the main beach area so there are houses (lucky owners) right by the beach instead of shops, as well as houses on the cliffs overlooking the beach (even luckier owners).

I walked along the beach then went up to the road to look in the shops for a bit before finding a place for lunch. I decided on "The Cornerstore Bistro" and settled in for a lovely lunch. Since I was at the beach I decided to have the fried fish (gurnard was the day's fresh fish). It was delicious and I really enjoyed the side salad which had small bits of pickle, caper and shaved fennel in it -- which went very nicely with the fish and tartar sauce. My lunch wine of choice was Waipara Springs "Prema" sauvignon blanc. Described on the wine list as "perfectly bone dry with the finish of a gin and tonic". (Val G. -- if you can find this one at the LCBO Vintages try it out. Perfect for a lunch wine, especially if you can go lie on the beach afterwards.) For dessert (why not push the boat out when at the beach) I had the trio of homemade sorbet: vanilla-nectarine, grapefruit and strawberry. Delicious and cool on a hot day.

After lunch I found a nice spot on the beach and spread out my towel and relaxed and read in the sun. Luckily there was some cloud cover every now and then to cool things down. Plus a great breeze off the sea.

Once I was suitably relaxed I walked along the Promenade for awhile and watched the surfers. Then I caught the bus with pleasant driver (attention TTC!) back into the city.

(Unfortunately I forgot the cord to upload photos from my camera-phone to my computer so I can't make you all jealous with photos of the beach today.)

Going to head back to the cottage now. Scrambled eggs with smoked salmon for my dinner tonight to empty out the fridge. Will stop to get a small juice and yogurt for my brekkie tomorrow. Will fire up the Fisher & Paykel washer and dryer and do my laundry tonight before packing up the suitcase. An airport shuttle is coming to pick me up at 9:30 tomorrow to head to the airport and off to Dunedin I go.

Favourite things about Christchurch: Annie's wine bar at the arts centre, Scorpio Books on Hereford Street (a fantastic independent bookstore), the cat population of Chester Street East (especially Pyhrr who I may have graduated to unofficial cat-in-residence), Entwhistle cottage and swimming with the dolphins at Akaroa.

Cheerio!