Earthquake city!

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What I did
Lots of rubble!

Flag of New Zealand  , South Island,
Thursday, November 24, 2011

Our bus from Dunedin to Christchurch was a bit of a later one than usual so we didn't arrive in Christchurch until 8.00pm. This would have normally been ok but this time when we got to our backpackers they didn't have our booking for 6 nights down and instead had somehow managed to only put us in for one night, and that was tomorrow night! We had to have a really quick phone around to try to get somewhere to stay but everywhere was full! Finally we found a hostel that said we could sleep in the lounge on the sofa for the night if we needed to so that's what we did. As it turned out it was a nice place and quite comfortable. In the morning the owner told us he now had a room available so that was a relief, and we got the sofa night for free which was a bonus!
The rest of our stay in Christchurch was much more enjoyable and we even when to an outdoor Christmas festival which was good fun although slightly strange to be celebrating Xmas outside and wearing shorts!
There is still a lot of Christchurch that is shut off after the earthquake and its hard to imagine how bad it must have been until you go there. I was really surprised by the amount of damage that was done, it must have been terrible for the people that live there.
The parts that have not been effected are still really nice and there is the Avon River which we went kayaking on and all the suburbs that are a bit further out. We went to Riccarton which is quite a busy place and went to the cinema to see Arthur Christmas (which was great!) just to keep up the Xmas vibe!
We also visited the museum and botanic gardens which were really nice especially as the weather was so warm, we almost needed the sun cream!
We were a bit worried about spending too much time in Christchurch as we weren't sure if there was going to be much to do but even with the centre being closed off it is still a lovely place to look around and we would definitely like to go back in the future to see it when all the building work is complete.

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