As today was our last full day together, we decided we'd celebrate Phil's birthday to make up for the fact that he'll be sitting on a plane for most of his actual birthday. We spent the morning packing up and taking Norah, our beloved campervan, back to the Christchurch depot. We were pretty sad to leave her behind but were soon comforted by our Salerno Motel Apartments. I'd booked a deluxe spa studio as a birthday surprise for Phil - we weren't disappointed! We even had our own terrace, hot tub and more importantly for me, a washer dryer!

Phil had a great idea that we should go punting along the river Avon, (Christchurch being Oxford/Cambridge inspired), so we managed to book an afternoon punt leaving us a little time to explore the city. As you walk into the city centre, it seems as though there isn't much going on - so many places are closed or still construction sites. However, once you walk in the right direction, you can find a little hub if activity right in the centre of the city called 'Re-Start'. This place is awesome! There are small shops, cafés and plenty of street entertainers out in the old Cathedral Square. The shops and cafés are all made out of shipping containers, but they actually look really cool and there is such a great atmosphere about the place. We sat outside the Hummingbird Café and watched the world go by.

I wouldn't be surprised if Re-Start became a permanent feature of Christchurch, even after the rebuild. It is like a cross between Camden and Covent Garden, but as Phil says: classier than Camden and more hip than Covent Garden! A little gem in the heart of the city - so glad we found it.

The day was made even better by glorious sunshine. I reckon it's been our hottest day yet - perfect for a lazy punt along the river. The trip took us past the Botanic Gardens along one side of the river which look really impressive. They've imported lots of English plants and trees and the river bed is lined with great big weeping willows.

We went back to our posh apartment fairly early in the evening to make the most of it - sunning ourselves with a glass of wine on the terrace and enjoying a gourmet Hell's Pizza (Phil's old fave from good old North End Road!)

It was the perfect way to end our adventure together, except for an unfortunate earthquake interrupting our pizza - this time we certainly felt it. It was quite a scary and unsettling experience and it seemed to take ages for the shaking to stop. We later found out that is was 4.8 on the Richter scale - the biggest aftershock since February 2011. It was the longest 12 seconds of my life that's for sure!