We have arrived in New Zealand! And we are absolutely freezing! After saying goodbye to the Quigley family, Rachel kindly dropped us off at the airport so we could catch our flight down to Briabane. From here we had a 10 hour wait and surprisingly had a comfortable snooze. We got up at 5am to check-in and took our flight over to Christchurch on New Zealand's south island.

After some confusion, we picked up a cheapish shuttle bus to take us to our hostel Point Break. We are staying out of the city at New Brighton which is very similar to an English run-down seaside town. Ruth and I took a walk down the pier and it is nice but a bit tacky. As we drove via the city, the taxi driver explained that every building that has construction fencing around it was affected by the earthquake and needed pulling down. We didn't realise how much work there still was to do as there was just fencing everywhere. We were driving down a really bumpy and hilly road, which the taxi driver pointed out and told us used to be completely flat, there is still so much to be done even on the outskirts of town.

We had been waiting to get to New Zealand as the weather was really hotting up in Cairns and the wet season rain was really coming in. However, we regret this now as it is absolutely freezing here, it rained a little but there is a bitter cold wind. I'm not sure I have the appropriate clothes if it's going to be like this all month but first we will try and acclimatise and layer up!

We are staying at the Point Break backpackers which is ok, the kitchen and toilets could do with sprucing up, but I'm sure we will manage. It does do a free breakfast which was really good!

The time zone change means we are now 3 hours ahead of Australia and 13 hours ahead of the UK. We were up until 2am, as it didn't feel so late, chatting to another couple who explained there is not much to do here since the earthquake.

After enjoying our free breakfast the following morning, we took a local bus into the city centre. Christchurch now has a red zone in the city, so the entire centre where the main streets were, are fenced off. There is a lot of rubble on the streets, but a lot of the buildings are still standing. It just looks like a ghost town. Basically the quake has destroyed the foundations and mortar holding the buildings together, so a lot of the structure has buckled and the roof of the building is all that is holding it together. Usually they would take the buildings down one storey at a time from top to bottom. However, here if the were to take the roof off, the entire structure would collapse and this is unsafe to do. This also means the building is too structurally unsafe for people to enter to lay explosives in the correct places so they cannot be safely blown up either. Plus work has to be done with the foundations and pipes under ground first. I think the plan will be to try and put some support cables through the buildings so they can safely take them down and start rebuilding. A governmental worker told us 60% of the central business district buildings will need pulling down. The city has put up a number of colourful portacabin-like structures to relocate some of the shops and restart the city and local businesses. There are temporary banks and coffee shops which look very attractive next to the abandoned old centre. Unfortunately, Christchrch has lost a lot of its old buildings and architecture, yet the really nice buildings made with timber are still in pristine condition.

After walking around for a short while, we booked a bit more of our trip for Fiji. We are now really looking forward to our last nights as we have booked ourselves into a 5 star hotel! :)

From here we took a walk around the botanical gardens which are very pretty. The festival of flowers is currently on, so there is some really good displays dotted around. Christchurch is known as the garden city and is very green and lush. The gardens offer a real escape from city life.

The earthquake that wrecked Christchurch hit just over a year ago now and (maybe quite ignorantly) we had no idea how bad the damage still was. In the red zone, it is eerily abandoned, quiet and dull, with flowers lining the fences with memorial messages. It is sad to see the city in such a mess, but, the locals are, as they must, carrying on and working around it. In some areas you can see the work is going in, there is just so much that needs doing. We have already met so many people in the hostel who have or are between jobs in construction. On the plus side, the city still has a really nice feel to it and I can see in a few years, it will be a vibrant and beautiful place to be.

We pick our camper van up in the morning. We can't wait to start our road trip but we are all a little apprehensive about the size of it and where all our belongings are going to fit! But we will see how we go and I will let you know next time...

Amy. x