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Hagley Oval, either way, with former post ground has seen South Africa cricket, with one of the most popular
activities being a spectacular cable
offices and movie houses just have the edge over visiting
Christchurch some of the buildings being teams. Stadium/history tours car ride around Table Mountain.
For a somewhat political flavour,
converted to host funky new
are on offer for cricket fans
Just across the ditch on cafes serving some of the who want to see more than visitors are also encouraged to visit
the Robben Island Museum, an
the South Island of New best coffee you will ever sip. just their favourite players do impressive examination of the island
Zealand is the impressive Other major tourist draws battle, with guides leading that housed former South African
spiritual home of cricket in here include cable cart trips visitors through the ground’s President Nelson Mandela as an
the Canterbury region. Hagley into the scenic mountain embankments, referred to by inmate for 18 of his 27-year sentence,
Oval is a small and quaint areas to take the full view locals as the Snake Pit and his tough punishment for seeking to
place to watch a session in, amazing Botanic Garden the Oaks, as well as inside overthrow racist apartheid policies.
or two of test cricket, with strolls, and a range of quality looks at the dressing rooms,
the first ball ever bowled wine tours. practice nets and, of course,
at the ground dating back a tour of the hallowed pitch Lord’s Cricket
to 1867. Pleasingly for Newlands itself. For travellers to Cape Ground, London
cricket fans in the area, the Town there is also a plethora
ground’s significance and Cricket of attractions to check Often referred to as the home of
reputation in world cricket Ground, out between the days of cricket itself, Lord’s is an absolute
has only increased over must to check out for any cricket fan.
time – especially in the last Capetown
10 years - where important Owned by the Marylebone Cricket
Club and home to the Middlesex
internationals have started Many cricket fans argue Country Cricket Club, it really doesn’t
to be staged at Hagley. It’s that Newlands in South Africa get any more English than watching
obvious why players relish is the most beautiful ground a match and nursing a lager at this
playing here, with its old- in the world, and it’s tough
world pavilions and stands to argue with these staunch ground. Modern meets old is the
current theme of the day, with old
blending like poetry with the opinions when you have both and renovated stands co-existing
serene and leafy surrounds Table Mountain and Devil’s with the futuristic and Martian-like
of Christchurch. The city itself Peak as your enveloping Media Centre which now dominates
is fast earning itself a global backdrop. The ground was
tourist reputation for its established way back in 1888 the landscape. But there is far more
than batting and bowling on offer for
premium café and restaurant when England gave the locals tourists here, with the oldest sporting
culture, a strong incentive a spanking by an innings and museum in the world gifting fans a
for travellers to drop by change, but since then the first-hand look at the largest collection
of cricket memorabilia in the world.
Clockwise The MCC Museum has been collecting
from top: artefacts of the sport since 1864 and
Hagley Oval, welcomes around 50,000 visitors a
Christchurch year. And it wouldn’t be a true English
A cricketer stadium without a picturesque garden
smashes it or two, with the Harris Garden and the
out of the Coronation Garden providing a restful
park
scene of weeping ash trees dotted
A gloomy around bronze statues of some of the
day at Lord's
Cricket game’s greatest ever players. While in
Ground England’s capital, why not carve out
some time to grab a classic pub meal
before taking it all in high above the
ground on The London Eye
Millennium Wheel.
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