We landed in Christchurch in the afternoon. Me, Grace and Elena were on one flight and Charlie was on another, she landed 2 hours after us, so while we were waiting in the airport we tried to make some plans. The flight was awesome, we got lunch and had our own screens so we could watch films for the three hours. Due to the recent earthquake, most of Christchurch is still not open and that applied to hostels too. We ended up staying in a cabin on a holiday park near the airport and had a quiet night in, splashing out on a decent meal at the truckers cafe over the road.

The next day me, Grace and Charlie headed off to go pick up our campervan while Elena went to do some shopping. We were supposed to be meeting up again later before we all separated but none of our phones seemed to work so it didn't happen. The campervan is awesome, they manage to fit so much stuff into such a small place, we've got a microwave, grill and hob, complete with a kettle and all cooking equipment you could want. There's even space for a toilet, but we decided not to bother with that, the thought of having to sleep on top of it wasn't too appealing. Grace was the first driver and we headed to the shopping centre to buy some more layers. Having been in warm countries for the past few months, we weren't too prepared for the cold winter of New Zealand! We spent that night in another holiday park in Christchurch and made stew in our nice little kitchen. This was probably the healthiest meal I've had since being away!

The next morning we got up, locked the van and went to shower. The only problem was when we got out, the keys were still in the van. The campervan company only have one set of spares and for some reason, all the keys live in Auckland. This led to a lot of waiting around and $60 to get a locksmith to break into the van! We then tried to do a bit of sightseeing around Christchurch, but there wasn't really much to see. Hardly any of the centre is open, we spent a while wandering around some gardens though, before heading off towards Akaroa