Yesterday was census day in NZ. Even visitors had to fill out a form so they could count us. The census was postponed a couple of years ago because of the earthquake.

Not much to write home about today, as we were on the road again, and there aren't many attractions between Timaru and Christchurch.

We stopped in Ashburton for lunch. Bob was in the mood for a hamburger as he hasn't had one for five weeks, so we stopped at Burger King.  

We tried to visit the Vintage Car Museum, but it was closed.

We drove on to Rakaia which had a nice little park with signage. It said that Rakaia was a community that was ruled by the Rakaia River. Before there was a bridge, many lives were lost by drowning, so many they considered changing its classification to "death by natural causes."  

Then a very long bridge was built, the longest railroad bridge in NZ. It was a bridge also shared by cars. They had gate men who had to stop the cars from crossing at least one hour before the train from Christchurch was expected. But sometimes the trains didn't keep to their schedule, and there were some near misses.

They had two old jail cells. Offenses included theft, loitering, profanity, and smoking on the train.

They also had Salmon World there, an aquarium and a 4-D movie. We didn't find out what a 4-D movie was, because they charged $20 per ticket. 

I took Bob's photo with the fish statue anyway.

Tomorrow we will go into the center of Christchurch to witness the rebuilding of the city after the earthquake. There is also a flower show going on that we may see.