We started our New Zealand trip on the South Island of New Zealand, at Christchurch.
Christchurch is renowned for the kind of Englishness you can see above. This isn't surprising as the town was originally founded by English settlers. You can even go punting down the River Avon. We didn't do that of course, because it was bloody freezing.
Tokyo is doing its usual crazy summer - 40°C was recorded at Shibuya in recent weeks - but New Zealand is in the middle of winter. Christchurch was particularly cold, dropping below zero as night fell. And night fell pretty damn early too, it was getting dark before 5pm.
As for Christchurch itself, I didn't exactly feel like I was somewhere else. It just reminded me of the UK. Some holiday, huh?