A Relaxing Morning Walk

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

So the other morning I took a walk. I thought you would like to come along. Go to Google Map New Zealand; find Christchurch. Okay, looking at Christchurch, you need to go south and west. You are looking for the little village of Lincoln. It helps about this point to hit the “terrain” button in the top-right-hand part of your picture. As you are looking at the screen, go left down Ellesmere Junction Road. It’s located just left of the Gerald/Springs Road/Ellesmere Junction roundabout. It is not uncommon here in this area for one road to change names quite often. Notice that Gerald Street becomes Ellesmere Junction Road as it crosses going left past Springs Road. Look at the University. The first road going into the university is called Gate 1. The long building on the right of Gate 1 is Hillgendorf. That is where Jack’s office is. Notice that there is a circle drive that comes out just left of Gate 1 – this is where you catch the bus to get to Christchurch or to Hornby where Jack and Robynn needed to go to get our phone to work. The next entrance into the university is called Gate 2. The map has it as Calder Road but the map and the computer generated street don’t exactly match. If you go left about eleven houses you will come to Sims – three attached buildings that sit diagonal.
So yesterday morning I decided to go for a walk. I headed out the back of my flat, through the fence and onto the oval shaped field. Actually I skirted the field…they keep it immaculate…walking next to the trees on the right side. I walked between the buildings and turned left on Farm Road. When I got to the trees, I turned left on the diagonal road – it’s marked Weedons Road above. Left over the pasture fence from Farm Road are our neighbors: sheep, cows and red deer.
Walking down the road toward the bottom of your screen, I was circling the big circle of grass, another beautifully kept Cricket field. On the bottom right hand side of the field is what we would call the press box or special boxes for dignitaries in the football world. The building looked like it functioned the same in the Cricket world. Jack and I walked around the field last Sunday evening and there are nice wooden benches surrounding the field. I thought they would be nice places to go read my book on a warm afternoon. I turned right along the tree line and came upon South Drive. Here in New Zealand, there are nicely trimmed hedges; several are large pine tree rows they have trimmed into hedges. There is a gravel road that runs along the hedges that cover the bottom part of the Cricket field. I had stopped and explored some pastures and was caught in the middle of a sheep drive using 4-wheelers, so I decided not to follow South Drive to Springs Road and make the circle around the university but cut through, up Calder Drive. In between Farm Road and Ellesmere Junction, there is a square building on your right. This is the student center and the housing office. They were very kind on Monday when I had just gotten out of the shower, went out my flat around the corner to put a load of laundry in the washer. My door closed behind me and I didn’t have my key. Yes, I had locked myself out. Luckily I was dressed and walked down the road…with wet hair to the housing office to get an extra key. They giggled as they gave it to me. (Crap! I hate it when I make a name for myself with stupid things like that.)
I got up to Ellesmere Junction Road, turned left and followed the path, approximately eleven houses to my flat. It was a lovely walk on a beautiful late summer morning in Lincoln. I hope you enjoyed coming along with me.