Finally, we boarded the plane and landed in Christchurch, it were deserted and we rather gamely decided to sleep rough in the airport. We found a deserted section of the gate lobby that won't be in use for a while. We settled down for the night or should I say morning at this time? I had to make do with a freebie blanket and my rucksack for the pillow.

Next morning, I woke up freezing, I was so miserable at this stage and my mood wasn't helped by the others still unaware of the draught that hasn't hit them. Soon enough all of the others woke up and we had to wait until 1pm for our appointment with the campervan company.

Lady Luck then belatedly decided to give us a piece of luck, a sympathetic airplane worker set up a heating fan and arrange us all front of it before contacting Britz company to explain to them of our trauma and arranged for the earlier pick up of the camper-van.

We made our way to Britz headquarters which gave us a chill because it looked like an departure lounge but luckily we were whisked through the process which we learnt how to use the campervan which is a 6 berth with toilet and shower. We had to learn how to put on snow chains, put gas on, empty waste water and sewage as well to set the power on. We need 240 volts power to use microwave and electric sockets which can only be done by connecting to a power outlet in a campsite but other equipment such as fridge run on 12 volts battery in the campervan.

We drive off and our amateur status was ruthlessly exposed as we forgotten to lock some cupboards and it all opened with the cutlery spilling out. A lesson learnt!

We headed for Christchurch, soon as we entered the town centre, it were eerie with some of the buildings still ripped apart by the earthquake, there were loads of the businesses still closed and some buildings were marked with a pink pen with the date for demolishment because they can't be salvaged.

There were even a solider directing us to a car park and to warn us not to wander in the heart of the town because it is still not safe. There was a metal fence ringed around it. As I explored further, I had to waddle through the snow and some cracks in the road. It is as if Christchurch had its soul ripped out by the Mother Nature and cruelly stripped of its former glory. This fact was even more sad because on the flight to Christchurch, we watched a tourist video of Christchurch and we could see all of the landmarks we saw in the video looking desolated.

We then headed for Dunedin which on the route we stopped for the night in a picnic kiosk which thankfully has toilets. Some alert readers amongst you may wonder why we needed public toilets but it were discovered that our toilet is next to the shower and it had a gutter snaking towards to the same plughole so whenever someone went to the toilet, their wee went through the gutter all around the tiny bathroom and it is not an attractive proposition to have a shower next to someone's wee snaking around your toes.