Day 166- This was the earliest day we had to be up at around half 6 so we could eat our breakfast and get on the bus by 7.30. We then drove the final leg of our Stray journey. We had some really bad experiences with them which luckily were all rectified, yet we still wouldn't recommend them to others. It was great how they made stops and took us for walks, letting us take photos everywhere, all in all thanks to them we didn't miss a thing. However it is supposed to be a hop on hop off service that gives travellers freedom whereas in actual fact you need to book at least a month in advance to make sure you get on the bus and therefore caused us a lot of stress. So the big orange bus drove off leaving us at the airport- this was because the CBD was flattened in the earthquake and the hostel they usually drove to came down as well, providing no reason to drive in to the centre. As most people will already know the earthquakes caused devastation through the entire of Christchurch bringing down almost a third of all buildings. It's first one was completely unexpected as Christchurch doesn't sit on a fault line (well it does now) and therefore no reason to expect an earthquake. All eyes were on Wellington which lies directly over the tectonic plate boundaries. The first one hit on 4th Sep 2010 at 4.35 am and caused widespread damage to a lot of the older buildings, luckily most people were in bed so nobody was hurt. Then on the 22nd Feb 2011 a 'quake of 6.3 on the Richter scale struck the city centre only 5km deep (which is very close in earthquake terms). This meant it was significantly more extreme. People had reported of being physically thrown into the air and across rooms and it brought down 2 multi-storey buildings, destroyed many others, ripped apart the port town of Lytteltown tearing open roads and gashes in the ground and bringing down bridges. The suburbs were destroyed by rapid liquefaction whereby the earth is split open and silt and sand from under the surface oozes up flowing among buildings and roads. This mass-scale destruction caused 185 deaths. As we walked around the city centre it felt like a war zone. Two years on and there were still buildings waiting to be demolished with the entire CBD cordoned off as a red zone. From the fences and gates we could see huge cracks in the side of buildings with lots of them crumbling or flattened. The future plans look really good but it will take over 20 years. That night we were couchsurfing as we hoped to stay with some locals and get an insight into their thoughts and feelings and we managed to stay with a group of students in a suburb not far from the centre. A few of them were in the centre when it happened and couldn't really say much as you expect. Since the major earthquake there have been thousands of tremors and aftershocks but luckily no more significant damage and the epicentre is moving toward the Pacific Ocean so they are safe for the time being. When we arrived that morning there was an American- Danny, also staying there and he came to the town with us. We stopped off at the botanical gardens on the way their and watched some of the oldies race their remote controlled miniature yachts around the lake. We headed toward the city centre from here and then we visited the intriguing Re:Start mall, this is a retail centre that is positioned on the edge of the CBD where all shops are housed in shipping container units. As you walk around you feel as if you could be walking round the storage docks but once you venture inside one they are regular shops and cafe's. It was a great place and we had a coffee as we took in the bustling atmosphere of people getting back to everyday life. We had a slow walk back and called in the supermarket on the way. Back at the house we discovered a fourth couchsurfer had turned up- Harold, a German lad. We all sat around with two of the house mates and talked late into the night.

Day 167- That night Danny left for his flight to Australia and me and Eve headed to the shopping mall to find a camera case. Harold came along as he was heading to the centre, we had a look around the shopping mall then Harold carried on as we turned back and picked up some fish and chips for dinner on our way back. We spent the rest of the afternoon researching our next destination- Singapore. It wasn't long before some of the house mates came filing in and they decided a game of beer pong was in order. So we popped to the shop for some cheap booze and started playing. It was great fun and we all had a laugh, once of the flat mates had a few too many bottles he pulled out the karaoke machine. We all had a go and then some people decided to head out to some bars. It was getting late and we had a good night so decided to stay in and go to sleep.

Day 168- Harold left early that morning as he was jumping on the Stray bus- we wished him luck! We spent most of the day doing more research and sorting our cases out for the flight. When we were in the botanical gardens on the first day we noticed there was a summer production of The Wind in the Willows held at an outdoor stage. So we thought it would be a great end to our Australasian journey. We headed down at around 5pm to make sure we got a good spot, it turned out 30 mins early was very late but we still managed to find a good patch of grass. We took with us a small picnic of sandwiches and snacks with an obligatory bottle of wine. We settled down and the play began. It was split into two halves with a small interval and we thoroughly enjoyed the first half. There was a small narrow river that ran through the gardens and they built a temporary stage part over it and the riverbank. The location was brilliant and worked brilliantly. The acting was superb and the costumes perfect. The second half began as the sun was setting behind the trees and continued just as well as it left off. It was really well thought through and directed and we had a lovely evening. We sauntered back to the house and managed to sneak in 3 hours of napping before we had to catch our taxi to the airport.