My friends Claudine and Claire, having endured looking at my photos of Peru (only 100 - carefully selected from over 1,000!) challenged me to limit myself to a selection of one a week on this trip. So here's the first. A theme of the first week was seeing cities by night from up high. Hong Kong from The Peak and Christchurch from our B&B in Cashmere Heights. This a photo taken from the B&B of the city and the house next door.

Christchurch is now best known to most people for the earthquakes that occurred in September 2010 and February 2011 - the latter killing 185 people. Today signs of the damage caused are still everywhere. These range from the minor - walls propped up, patches on roofs where a chimney fell down, collapsed garden walls - to major. Empty lots are a sign a building was destroyed and has been cleared whilst the Central Business District is still cordoned off and most...

Get up very early. Train to the airport. 12 hour flight to Sydney. Frankie meets us at the airport. Taxi to hotel. Drink with Frankie. Go to bed late. Get up very early. Taxi to airport. Flight to Christchurch. Taxi to B&B. Worth it all for the view from the loo.