Day 2 of our tour presented a typical quandary when it comes to travel photography; that is, the problem of feast or famine.

The day was occupied by a package trip around the Christchurch area. If you're seeing this photo in my New Zealand gallery, you'll already be aware that Christchurch is on the east coast of New Zealand's South Island in the province of Canterbury. If you're seeing this in my PESO gallery, you may not but you do now.

The day started with a walk from the hotel to the meeting place at Christchurch Museum, taking in some of the historic buildings of the city. We then went on a punting tour down the Avon River, followed by a tour of the Botanic Gardens then a half-hour road trip to the seaside suburb of Sumner Beach, and then to here. Where is "here"? In the Heathcote Valley to the south-east of Christchurch there is a gondola which takes you up to Mount Cavendish in the Port Hills, the altitude of which is 448 m (1,470 ft). From there you can see south to a bay that contains the harbour of Lyttleton. (The harbour was formed by an extinct volcano, and we are standing on the crater wall of that volcano here.)

Or, you can see east to the coast. Or north-west to Christchurch city. Or you can look to the west, across which you will see the agricultural Canterbury Plains, which eventually give way to the Southern Alps mountain chain that runs down the centre of the island and includes 17 peaks that exceed 3,000 metres (9,800 ft) in height. That mountain range is what we are looking at here. Specifically, we are looking at the part of the Alps that form the Torlesse Range. Later in the week, we would be catching a train up and through the Alps out to the west coast for a day trip.

Unfortunately this was not the best weather; the day was grey and cloudy by this point, and very wintry. However I thought the mountains were still impressive enough to be designated as the photo for this day in my PESO gallery.

After spending about an hour sight seeing and grabbing a late lunch, we headed back to Christchurch to catch one of the historic trams, and later that night to catch the restaurant tram which fed us fine food while we were on the move through the city. That, however, is a story for another gallery.