It was Tuesday 21st September and we were on our way to Christchurch, the largest city in the South Island. We were told that it was okay to travel there after the 7.1 earthquake which took place on 4 September. To be honest, we were going to go even if we hadn't received any advice.

During our coach journey we passed through many picturesque towns; Fairlie, Geraldine and Methven and then across the Canterbury Plains.

Just as we entered Christchurch, we saw many of the buildings damaged by the earthquake. There were many shop fronts missing where the bricks had cracked and crumbled and lay on the floor, chimneys missing and cracks in the roads.  It was odd seeing some streets with one or two houses badly damaged whilst other houses in the same street looked fine. It turns out that the wooden buildings faired better than their brick counterparts and they had more flexibility.

Our driver then took us to a high point for views of the Southern Alps and Christchurch City where we took a few photos. We then continued to the Backpackers hostel just round the corner from Manchester Street which is known for all it's lively bars - not this time though as the street was taped off due to many buildings being unsafe to enter. We have taken some photos of the damage we saw.

After checking in and dumping our stuff we went for a walk to the I-Site (information desk) to obtain some literature and a map. We continued to walk to the Avon River, which cuts through the city, so we could jump on a traditional (English) punt for a 30 minute ride down the Avon River. We went through the Botanical Gardens passing willow trees, leafy banks, daffodils and ducks. It was a very relaxing journey and a little warmer weather than it had been in the last week.

After the ride we took a stroll through the gardens taking many photos. We popped into the museum to see the remarkable exhibition of the early Antarctic photography taken of Robert Scott's adventures to the Antartic on the Terra Nova 1910-1913. It was an amazing story about how he tried to survive with his expedition party in such freezing Antarctic conditions. They were searching for food as they had run out of provisions and knew they were only 11 miles away but unfortunately none of them ever made it. The weather was too severe for them to continue. Despite being 100 years ago, the photos were nothing short of stunning.

Afterwards, we walked back towards the hostel popping in for a quick drink at a bar called Sticky Fingers. It seemed to be busy with a few after work drinkers all suited and booted and there was us in our combats! We left after a swift drink and stayed in for the evening.

We awoke the next morning and decided that we would walk to Cathedral Square, which is where everything revolves, to get the Tram around town and to book tickets for the Antarctic marine centre and, book a coach tour to Akaroa (a small coastal town to the south east of Christchurch) for Thursday and for Friday a the Tranzalpine railway trip to Greymouth with a same day return.

We started our morning off on the "hop-on, hop-off" Christchurch Vintage Tram which goes around the city centre. We did almost a full circuit (our pass allowed 2 consecutive days of travel). We needed the bank so had to jump off the tram early. This was then followed by an Esquires coffee and the use of their free internet.

It was then time to hop on the free shuttle to the Antartic Centre. This attraction is acclaimed as New Zealands best visitor attraction. Christchurch is only 3,825 kilometres from Antarctica!

Our Antarctic Centre adventure began with us watching the feeding of blue penguins at the penguin encounter. We had backstage passes allowing us to get up close to the penguins. There was also a sound and light show depicting the four seasons of Antarctica and a chilling -5 celcius snow and ice experience with a slide down an icy slope and a wind chill machine at -18 celcius. It was a fun afternoon. Lisa was particularly excited as she got really close to a penguin, her favourite animal.

When we got back to town, we hopped back on the tram to do a full circuit of the city and then went back to the hostel to cook dinner.

It was Thursday morning and we were asleep until 06:30 when we were woken up with the room shaking vigourously. We had experienced our first aftershock of 4.7. A little scarey but within seconds it was all back to normal.

We stayed awake after this as we were on a day trip to Akaroa by coach.  Akaroa is a popular resort town situated on Banks Peninsula 82km east of Christchurch. A charming French influenced village set in a beautiful harbour with many local street names, business names and architecture still reflected the European influence. Our bus journey consisted of stopping at Birdlings Flat Beach where huge beach waves would come upto shore, Little River's Old Railway Station and Craft shop, the Hill Top Tavern for a drink and to look at the views of Akaroa and Harbour.. Lisa fed Angora goats. We took a walk around town and stopped off at a good restaurant. This was then followed by walking past boutique shops and quaint houses.

On the way back we stopped off at Barry's Bay Cheese Factory to sample a selection of handcrafted locally made cheese. We ended up purchasing 3 types of cheese.

When we got back we cooked dinner and used the Internet to organise our trip moving forward.

On Friday morning at 03:41 we experienced another aftershock at 4.6. We were soon back to sleep forgetting all about it!

Today, we took the Tranzalpine railway from Christchurch to Greymouth and returned the same day taking 9 hours! It is one of the must things to do for sightseeing. The train travelled across the Canterbury Plains' farmland, winding through gorges, over rivers and climbing the Southern Alps. Unfortunately part of the journey was wet and windy so we couldn't take many photos. Further into tge journey it snowed!! One of the stops was Darfield which is where the earthquake epicentre was. Part of the railway track at Darfield was bent due to the earthquake and was replaced. We saw the old railway track sitting on the bank so we took some photos. After a number of stops at small towns, we reached Greymouth. We had an hour for lunch before returning to Christchurch. The journey was very scenic and very relaxing and one we would recommend.

This evening we played a few games of pool at the hostel, experienced another aftershock of 4.5, went to a few bars in the city and packed our rucksacks to move onto Kaikoura the next day. We had our fingers crossed that we would see whales off the coast of Kaikoura.