After a big night out in Queenstown, getting up to catch the bus for 8am was not a particularly nice experience. Nevertheless I took the long drive as an opportunity to sleep as much as I could. The hostel in Christchurch, named the Jailhouse, is in fact the last remaining part of a jail, closed in the early 90s. It was a little weird staying there and definitely something different to the norm, but made a welcome change.

We took a bus to Sumner, a nice area on the east of Christchurch, to meet Ali for a birthday BBQ. A we travelled by bus there were large containers at the side of the road, with houses split in half at the top of the cliff. I thought that the containers must have people's belongings in, but they're there to stop boulders when they fall, due to the instability the earthquake created.

My last day in New Zealand was relatively uneventful, it rained the majority of the day and there was little to do. I took a walk into the city centre, as I wanted to see the damage the earthquake had created over 18 months ago. It was like walking into a building site. The majority of places looked fine, but in the centre the city was hit really hard, buildings are cordoned off and many had fallen to rubble. It was sad to see that it's still taking such a long time to regenerate what was clearly a vibrant area before. Even sadder to hear that families have been left homeless or in small apartments as the insurance companies still won't pay out.