After leaving Cathedral Square, we walked west towards a crafts center. What this turned out to be was an old college that had been converted into a series of small shops among the stone buildings, featuring work of local artisans of every kind. Many of the shops were run by the artists themselves, and you could see them at work. There were so many beautiful things we would have loved to take back with us, but we settled on a fascinating mobile made of wire and glass balls and beads.
After a couple of hours in the crafts center, we headed toward the Botanic Gardens (starting to see a pattern here?) These were large and immaculately laid out and kept up, with many benches for sitting and admiring the view. We were especially intrigued by tree specimens of types we have in the US, but which typically don't get so large as they did in Christchurch. Here's a sample of the views...
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