A better night's sleep than recently but my legs still felt tired when I got up. I organised my bags, taking one with me and leaving one, plus my laptop, with Paul to put in his car boot. I could be re-united with them in the afternoon when he collected me from somewhere in town.

At 08.30 we piled into the car and Sarah and I were ejected at the university. She wandered off to a lecture and I took a few photos of the trees, the Water of Leith and the spectacular gothic buildings. I then walked into the town centre for a coffee, a roll and a perusal of the morning paper - the Christchurch one as the Otago Daily Times is too parochial to be worth the effort.

	Knox Church
The Water of Leith	Octagon penguins

By 09.30 it was dull and gloomy. I took my usual photo of Knox Church. A very elegant structure, and set about my pursuit of a pair of reading glasses. I had only just commenced when I was hailed by Toni the Dalmation's Mother (as opposed to Toni the Taxi) so felt obliged to be polite and stop for another coffee. So much coffee so early in the morning might not be a good idea!

I ventured into a few pharmacies without success and then into an opticians, who directed me to Farmers. There, a nice older lady took pity on me and showed me the rack of reading glasses. I found a pair almost like the ones that I wanted and took them to a very pretty girl with lurid blue finger nails and a very large Stanley knife. She extracted them from the packaging, took my money and sent me away.

With time to kill before I met Pete for lunch, I sat on a bench in the Octagon, wrote my diary and waited for something photogenic to happen. It didn't. Some children started playing near the water feature but didn't fall in. The penguins watched the chess board but the players must have been removed for the winter. Nothing else happened so I gave up and went for another walk.

St Paul's Anglican Cathedral
On the top side of the Octagon is the Anglican Cathedral. From the outside it is large and ornate. Inside, it is much simpler, almost understated. There are lots of stained glass windows, the organ is large and looks modern (research showed it to have been built in 1919) and the lady in charge of the information desk was busy making lace. There was a sign positively encouraging photography so I had an enjoyable time trying to capture some of the spirit of the place.
Lunch at Eat	The organ, St Pauls

Outside the Art Gallery I met Pete and we walked a couple of blocks to an interesting cafe which had been highly recommended. When it finally arrived - the wait was far too long - the food looked as good as it tasted.

The afternoon seemed to be growing darker and darker and I was feeling tireder and tireder. I wandered through town to the museum and explored the "faces" exhibition.

It was technically clever but I can't say that it excited me. I then sat on a comfy chair for a while in the hope that it would make me feel better.

Lots of people had mentioned the butterflies so I paid my $10 and entered the hot house. My camera lens immediately steamed up and with my filter and cleaning equipment packed in my bag in Paul's boot, I had to risk a clean hanky applied direct to my camera lens. After a while, it cleared itself and I snapped away happily at butterflies, birdies and a gecko. The young lady in charge was a great fan of the tarantulas but as they were black and lived in very dark corners, I didn't even attempt to photograph them.
	A very pretty gecko
	The resident ...
An inside waterfall	... butterflies

It was a very good display and I had a great time wandering around. I even managed to forget that I was feeling tired and that it was cold and dark outside. I emerged to find a couple of txts from Paul so had to prepare myself to be collected and ferried to the airport.

We had a hot drink at the Museum cafe and then drove out of town heading South. It was very cloudy for the first part of the journey but, luckily, this had lifted by the time that we had reached the airport.

I checked in very fast and found a new cafe since my last visit. This produced far better than average airport food and a bottle of Emersons. I was even able to play on their free internet until it was time to depart.

The flight was uneventful, the landing was rather lumpy, I decided to ignore the expense and catch a shuttle home, and was safely delivered to my door.