Lovely Gardens and a Wonderful Example of Kitsch

Before leaving Christchurch we spent Sunday morning visiting the botanical gardens and the adjacent Christchurch Museum.  The gardens were lovely and full of Sunday strollers.  The museum had a good many exhibits - natural history, Christchurch history, etc. but what we enjoyed most was Fred and Myrtle's Paua (abalone) shell house.  Fred was a shell collector and his wife Myrtle was tired of picking up his shells and began nailing them to the wall of their living room. The walls were eventually totally covered with hundreds of shells, and they began collecting every conceivable shell object - ash trays, telephone, lamps, outdoor fountains, and so forth.  Their home, on the southern tip of the South Island, became a visitor's magnet, they became minor celebrities and stars in TV commercials, and Myrtle was honored by Queen Elizabeth. Christchurch museum has the actual lounge (living room) as well as many of the shell objets d'arte.