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| Christchurch - shipping container mall was amazing |
The next morning we made the short drive
back to Christchurch – we wanted to be in the city in preparation for our
fairly early flight the next day, and particularly given our bad track record
with making the airport on time.
We’d driven briefly through when we picked
up Polly but had somehow managed to skirt around the city centre. On this
visit, following the sat nav, we ended up as close to the centre as you can get
before you hit the giant fences cordoning off the CBD. We hadn’t realised on
our first visit just how bad the damage in the CBD really was, but it looked like
a war zone – just rubble and half standing buildings everywhere. It was a
sobering thing to see.
Attached to the fence were miniature city
guides to advise how to get around the city with the closures and in it was an
advert for the new city mall which was created entirely from brightly coloured
shipping containers so we thought we’d go and check it out. It took a bit of
driving around before we finally found it but it was well worth the effort as
it was a fairly impressive thing to see. We stopped for a quick drink to cool
down in the warm weather and both agreed that we hoped they left it up once the
city centre was rebuilt.
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| Rebuilding continues. |
With many of the campsites near the centre
being closed we opted for one in South Brighton near the coast about a 15
minute drive out of town. Even on the way there we came across multiple closed
roads and diversions, and it was weird to see a row of houses untouched and
then another row completely destroyed.
We parked up Polly at the campsite and took
the short stroll to the beach where James amused himself by skimming stones for
half an hour while I coveted a black pug that was being taken for a walk.
After that we headed back to Polly for the
hideous task of repacking our backpacks and enjoyed one last meal in the old
girl before getting an early night.
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| South Brighton beach |
Our flight into Wellington tested my
abilities not to scream like a child to the maximum when we had to land in some
pretty horrendous winds, meaning our plane was rocking violently from side to
side on the descent. Kissing the ground upon arrival, we were thankful for the
airport collection from the car hire company…however, when things are going
fairly smoothly for us we should learn that there’s usually something hideous
on the horizon and we discovered what it was when we arrived at the car rental
office and went to pay only to realise that my wallet was missing from my bag.
After twenty minutes of turfing out
everything we had it became obvious that it was gone. Fortunately for us
though, the guy renting us the car (who looked and sounded like a dodgy car
saleman) took pity on us both (and particularly me in a sling) and offered to
give us the car without us having to offer a credit card as the bond.
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| Looks like summer, but that water almost took our feet off. |
It did however mean that our planned
afternoon of sightseeing around Wellington got put on the backburner while I
cancelled all my Australian and UK cards. On the plus side, we at least had the
comfort of our NZ-based friends Jamie and Matthew’s house to conduct our
business.
Come about 5pm when we were both thoroughly
exhausted and stressed out we decided to try and find the nearest bottle-o to
stock up on wine for the evening. When we got back to the house, Jamie and
Matthew’s housemate Michelle had returned home from work and said how desperate
she was for a glass of wine, and we were glad for the excuse to start drinking
at 5.30pm!
Once Jamie and Matthew got home we cracked open
another couple (dozen) bottles of wine and Jamie made us an amazing and
much-needed home cooked meal of asparagus risotto and after a few hours of
exchanging NZ travelling escapades we were completely tipsy and ready for bed.
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