So Christchurch, or chch as a lot of the locals seem to call it on posters, shop fronts and the like, was my first port of call in New Zealand, land of the Kiwi, Maoris and the All Blacks. Flying in from Melbourne was an impressive sight, over the mountains rising from the patchwork of green on the island, it took my breath away and I may have squeaked with excitement, worrying the woman sat next to me somewhat.

Arriving in Christchurch was a slightly different story - the Kiwis are extremely keen to protect their natural flora and fauna and most things are banned from entering the country, fruit, vegetables, honey, seeds, wood, oh and walking boots that might have vegetation on them. I totally understand their ardent vigilance but it was a hell of a pain having to take my boots out of my backpack so they could check nothing illegal was being tramped into the country in the treads! That over I left the airport to a rainy Christchurch, got on a local bus that took me somewhere near to where my hostel was and walked for 15 minutes in the rain to get to it. Just like being at home; Thank God for my cosy coat which actually made me too hot by the time I got there! Since it is winter here in New Zealand it's pretty quiet so there weren't many people about but that was pretty nice after Australia's packed hostels. I spent the remainder of my day wandering to the supermarket to pick up some food for the couple of days I was spending there and getting an early night to catch up on lost sleep with the early airport call.

Now to Christchurch city itself, most of you know that New Zealand is placed along a number of fault lines and on 22 February 2011 Christchurch and the Canterbury region were hit by a 6.3 magnitude earthquake, killing 185 people and severely damaging the majority of the CBD. You can't actually wander through remains of the CBD as it is unsafe and there are workers with fluorescent jackets everywhere doing demolition work to prepare for the rebuilding that is meant to start in 2013. You can walk through a cordoned off area straight through the centre of the remains, and it is a pretty sad sight, I suppose they are going to try and save some buildings as rather than being demolished they have been supported using wood, cords and old shipping containers, this included the old theatre which made me especially sad since it looked to be a lovely old building. There was also the sweetest little street with candy coloured buildings all the way down which looked like something out of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang - I can't imagine what it would be like to see your city and your home collapsed like they are, but the people of Christchurch seemed nothing but positive and ridiculously friendly and helpful. I truly don't know what they would do without shipping containers though, a new temporary (I assume)shopping centre has been built out of brightly coloured containers to try keep the city centre going and it is a really clever idea, although so far only a small number of shops have taken advantage of the opportunity.

There has to be a slight aside here to think of the private schoolchildren affected by the earthquake; not only were their schools knocked down but they have to wear potentially the world's worst school uniforms. In my single day in Chch I saw one group of boys dressed like the Warblers from Glee, girls in kilts down to their ankles and ridiculous hats, and another group of boys in blazers akin to something Beetlejuice might wear. I think if I were forced to wear something like that I'd go to public school haha.

The only other thing to do in Christchurch really is go to the museum so I dutifully went over for a look see. It was OK, had some history about the Maori settlers and their way of life and a little street that was meant to be like a typical city street when Christchurch was first settled by Europeans. The most fascinating part was the room dedicated to the Earthquake, to say it's such a recent event it was well thought out and held a lot of information, including videos of people's experiences of the actual quake and plans for the future. That pretty much ended my brief stay in Christchurch, I managed to finally watch 'The Boat That Rocked' which was hilarious and I can highly recommend it. The next day saw me boarding 'The Kiwi Experience' - but that's a story for another time.

Becca