In comparison to last weekend our time spent in Christchurch this weekend was very tame. We (us and Tom and Rachel) realised that we havent really done any touristy things in Christchurch, so, over a few after work ales on Friday we decided to hit the museums, parks and get out a kayak to take a trip up the river Avon. When Saturday rolled round and we managed to peel ourselves out of bed our list of things to do was getting shorter. We sacked the idea of kayaking and swapped it for a picnic in the park. We did however make it to the museum. After looking round the usual displays of arrowheads and other stone implements. We checked out the obligatory Maori exhibits and made our way to Fred and Myrtle Flutey's Paua Shell House.Many years ago Fred and Myrtle lived in an unassuming southern island called Bluff. Myrtle was tired of fred leaving his half polished abalone shells lying round the place and threatened to throw them out. Fred was having none of this, so, to get them out of the way he decided to hang them on the walls of their house. When he had finished polishing and hanging they had created the largest display of paua shells in New Zealand. Along with the busy bee pull along toy and the Jandal the paua shell house is one of the biggest bits of Kiwiana you can get.Fred and Myrtle opened the doors of their house to anyone who wanted to drop in and have a look. They kept it open 7 days a week for 8 hours and received a coveted Certificate of Merit from the New Zealand Tourist Industry Federation in 1990 by 2000 they had hundreds of thousands of visitors before sadly in 2001 Myrtle died and months after Fred died.The house was kept open for a while before being sold on. Before it went out of the Flutey family hands the lounge was stripped and set up as a travelling exhibition along with all the other little random trinkets that they had collected. It was this lounge that we saw at the museum. It was even set up with the cheery organ music that Fred used to play to all his guests!As cheesy as the house was it was a great story of the two who managed to reach their 70th wedding anniversary. Perhaps the secret is in the shell collecting!