Quite a long drive up from Dunedin to Christchurch and not as picturesque as the West side of the island. Lots of vineyards and fruit farms. Not mountainous this side of the island.

It had been about 4 weeks since I was last in Christchurch with Kiwi Experience. In that time they had suffered another 'minor' earthquake. The first time I was there they were getting back on their feet from the Quake in September and I didn't really see much evidence of it. This time the quake had hit the centre of the town and although it was shallower then the September one it caused more obvious damage. The hostel I had stayed in was now shut as was the lovely indian restaurant next to it. Many of the shops in the town were closed as they had been deemed to unsafe. A lot of scaffolding propping up buildings and we even saw one building that had been reduced to rubble. Because of this we struggled a bit to get accommodation. Finally got a twin room in YMCA with en-suite overlooking the botanical gardens. As soon as we got settled we went for a run around the gardens and explored the town, despite the evidence of earthquake it didn't feel and unsafe place to be. No big open gashes in the roads!

After a shower we found a really nice restaurant for a meal then spent the rest of the night in Irish bar called The Bog where an irish band got everyone dancing till the early hours. Left about 1am needing a taxi because it was raining again.

8th Jan was a free day, no need to do any driving so just chilled out with coffee and cakes, mooched around the shops and market finishing it off with another nice meal in celebration of the end of our trip to south island.

Sun 9th Jan. Flew back up to Auckland after a bit of hassle trying to drop hire car off