Thursday, May 28, 2015

Imagination Station

I enjoyed wandering around hardware stores in Christchurch but didn't go into many other shops; I've obviously been living the hermit life for too long! One place that did pique my curiosity was Imagination Station at Cathedral Junction on Worcester Street; it had interesting Lego 'things' in the window. We were welcomed inside to have a look round; sharing the space was a school group and a few other interested sightseers. Imagination Station is a charity-run play and education centre that opened in January 2015; free for adults and children although donations are very welcome.

All Black Lego Player in one window...

...and a stunning Lego map of Middle Earth in the other


Inside there were three distinct areas with mounds of Duplo in one, Lego in the second and Lego Technic in the third challenging the schoolchildren's engineering skills. There is also a suite of iMacs and opening hours are from 10am-6pm daily. I was very impressed - what a neat idea.

The Duplo play mat
The end of my holiday coincided with the wet, windy and cold snap that swept up the country. Flying back to the island from Invercargill was a lot calmer than it first appeared - we left in clear weather but ran into a wall of dark cloud halfway over Foveaux Strait; I needed to be sitting up front to get the best pics though.

Cloud bank in the middle of Foveaux Strait

The sky and the sea were the same grey!

Almost through the cloud as we neared Stewart Island

Low cloud hanging over the top of Stewart Island

Almost home
It's been almost two weeks since I arrived back and the weather has mostly been wet, cold and windy. We've escaped the extreme conditions that hit further north but we did get snow - photographic proof in my next blog!!