Christchurch

We rolled into Christchurch under cloudy skies, perfect for visiting a museum, which we did. We then walked up the street to what was 'Cathedral Square' before the earthquake of Feb.22, 2011, and is now just a lot of rubble in the 'red zone'. The city, two years after not one but two, devastating earthquakes (the first in September, 2010) is definitely not what I remember from 20 years ago!
We drove to a campsite in the suburb of South Brighton and were amazed at the condition of the roads which seemed to undulate as we drove- until we the saw signs 'Earthquake Damage' among the detour signs. Later at our friends house we looked through photo books of the effects of each earthquake and had a much better understanding of why the roads, two years later, were still so bad! We also saw partially collapsed buildings hanging over the edge of cliffs, where it is still too dangerous for them to be demolished.
Our campervan needed fixing - the heater broke down just when temperatures in the night are getting close to freezing! So it was perfect timing being in Christchurch, the biggest city on the South Island, to get this repaired.
We visited my friends Wayne and Sue, who I hadn't seen in 20 years and spent three days in Christchurch with them. Their hospitality was greatly appreciated and we enjoyed our evenings with them, catching up over dinner and a few glasses of New Zealand wine!
Willowbanks Park was one of Rory's favourite outings since he loves animals. This is like a small zoo but often you are walking in among the animals and can feed some of them- like the giant eels! We were also able to see a couple of kiwis which he loved!
On our one sunny day there, we hiked along the coast from a beautiful little bay called Taylor's Mistake, up to a point called Godley Heads that had remains of bunkers and batteries from WW2. The next day we took a drive out to the Banks Peninsula and the old French settlement of Akaroa, but the best part of that day was the Pavlova Sue (and Rory) made us for desert!