A few weeks ago we went for a day trip to Oxford a little town 50 km NW of Christchurch. A day trip? When you blink twice with your eyes you are past Oxford. Ah well half a day and it was more a round trip. On the way back we stopped in Rangiora as well. Oxford is a cosy town with the Alps on the background and some nice buildings. There is a popular restaurant on the mainroad, cafe 51 which you can see on the picture above. No the car isn't ours but it made a good shot. Also the famous TV chef Jo Seager has a cooking school on the same street.
Many people go to Oxford to have a picnic at Ashley Gorge, just past Oxford. A camping and picnic place is close to the river. We had a walk around there and the woodpigeon above posed nicely for us. She had her singlet on because it was a hot day. Years ago we spent a few days close to here in an old tramping hut at the foot of several tracks in the Oxford forest with the scouts. We did some tramping and at night we went eal catching. The kids had made sticks with 3 big nails attached to it. The only problem was we couldn't find any.
We bumped into scouting leader and friend Graeme, who went with me on that camp, in front of the craft shop in Oxford that day.
We continued the trip towards Rangiora largest town of the Wamakariri district with 12000 residents which has a lovely towncentre and than went back home
In the centre of Rangiora
Sounds like a lovely place! Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteit would be nice to see more pictures of this place :)
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely place Marja :)
ReplyDeletewhile you are back into blog-land, I am slowing down a bit..year end and works up to my neck, but never slowing down in visiting. One day..Marja, I'll pop over to NZ for sure :D
Thanks Mark
ReplyDeleteI know but I didn't make many Maybe next time
Mary Kate you are more than welcome here and I will showyou around as well when you come
When you mentioned alps it reminded me of Montreux!
ReplyDeleteGreat trip and pictures,Marja!I wish I am there too!Enjoy your nice weather in NZ!I heard at the weather news today that tomorrow will be a really winter chaos here with snow,storm and dangerous ice....We want see what will be.
ReplyDeleteHave a nice day!
Steffi
Funny to hear of Oxford in New Zealand!
ReplyDeleteFunny to hear yes... Very pretty !
ReplyDeleteHi Marja
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for sharing your pleasurable day excursion to Oxford. Wow, Oxford in New Zealand! While reading your blog, I was carried back to the many enjoyable moments I spent in the "City of dreaming Spires", Oxford, England in 1991; thirty years after I received the welcome news from the Examination Boards of Oxford and Cambridge Universities that I had passed all the subjects in the core curriculum for secondary schools (High Schools) with good grades. Thus my career as a primary school teacher was launched (1961) Also, your blog brought back to my mind Matthew Arnold, the poet and sage writer who was the first Professor of Poetry at Oxford in 18 something the exact year doesn't come to mind right now. Anyways, this longing to see Oxford again reminded me too of one of his many poems and as I think of this need to walk the streets of Oxford his poem, "Longing" comes to mind as pasted below.
Longing
Come to me in my dreams, and then
By day I shall be well again!
For so the night will more than pay
The hopeless longing of the day.
Come, as thou cam'st a thousand times,
A messenger from radiant climes,
And smile on thy new world, and be
As kind to others as to me!
Or, as thou never cam'st in sooth,
Come now, and let me dream it truth,
And part my hair, and kiss my brow,
And say, My love why sufferest thou?
Come to me in my dreams, and then
By day I shall be well again!
For so the night will more than pay
The hopeless longing of the day.
Matthew Arnold
Thanks again Marja for indulging my thoughts down memory lane.
Aroha
Paterika