A fairly good sleep, although I woke up freezing at about 6.30am and the sunlight was coming through the curtains making the room extremely bright. I turned the heater on, Ellie wasn’t happy she was like an ice cube but still couldn’t be bothered to get up and get out of bed to put more layers on or the radiator on throughout the night. She doesn’t like caravanning as she calls this cabin. Haha nothing a few cups of tea and the heater won’t fix. We tried to get some more sleep until about 8am but we weren’t deep sleeping. We can’t win... yesterday annoying roommates and this morning sunlight and silly temperatures.

We got off on the road at 9am, because again we were up and ready... our destination today was christchurch!

It’s crazy when I’m looking at the map and see the highways marked as yellow lines, you assume they’re great big highways with hundreds of lanes like America because they’re marked the same but when you’re on the highways here they’re actually jus one lane each way traffic roads because they literally don’t have the beee for the roads because nobody lives here! It’s so damn quiet it’s unbelievable. The first big town we came to since leaving Queenstown on Tuesday was Ashburton, it actually had traffic lights! (That’s when you know it’s a living working town)

Expecting lots of highways and motorways looking at the map coming into Christchurch but oh how very different it was... best described we were driving down Newport road with just traffic lights and no silly little roundabouts with about one eighth of the volume of traffic. Absolutely dead. We went through the suburbs to go to New World supermarket for our lunch and dinners over he next few days. We love a new world supermarket, the Salad bars and all the fresh deli, bakery, fishmongers, everything it all looks so yummy! So we mainly go to the supermarket to stare at food - yes! But who doesn’t....

Ellie did a dad with the car park... miles away! A bit scared to park the feisty Ford Focus.

Everything around us from shops to schools and houses, everything was brand new. All very modern! Our guess because the earthquake messed everything up so badly they renewed everything.

We dropped our things off at the hostel before dropping the car off at the car rental company, we were staying at jailhouse accommodation - recommended because you sleep in an actual jail, in a real cell block. The jail was active between 1874-1999. They had one of he cells still set up how it was back in the day, it was so cool in here!

After dumping our things we dropped the car off in the centre of town and went for a walk with our salad bar lunch salads! Oooo so excited! We had 100g each of broccoli, bacon and cranberries salad and a chicken, grape and almond salad - delicious!! (Now to try and rein-act it at home...)

It was a lovey town but very small and full of brand new modern buildings with the odd few old buildings that had managed to be saved from the earthquake or part modern part old, which gave the place character but it must be a bank holiday because everything is shut.

And why are all city council buildings made of ugly concrete blocks. Everywhere, they always look ugly and stick out like a sore thumb. We just always seem to notice that. It’s like the outcast building.

After lunch by the river with the Venice style boats floating by with the guys stood in the back guiding them down the river. I want to say it’s a gondola but I’m sure that’s just the cable car that goes to to the top of the mountain and not an actual Venice style boat?

A mosey around the main square, some nice shops and restaurants/bars along the river side. It was indeed a bank holiday... everyone was in the pub on a Friday early afternoon.

Couldn’t find a decent coffee shop to sit outside in the sun though so we went to a pub that looked pretty. On our 7th day of not alcohol, I ordered a Diet Coke. Ellie ordered a gooseberry “juice” from the cider fridge and wondered why her “juice” was so expensive... an apple cider with gooseberry flavourings. Yeah... that whole I didn’t know malarkey isn’t being bought with me. Ellie has broken her streak at 7 days and I’m still going strong, holding out for that wine tasting birthday of hers on Monday!

The weather was bloody lovely! The sun was boiling. Not we had to walk just over 3km back out to the hostel. We made dinner and lunch and all sorts nice and ready for tomorrow before we headed out on the 2.4km walk to the cinema to watch the Jojo Rabbit movie. Another bustling Friday evening! It took us way longer than it should have getting there so on the way back we took a short cut because who doesn’t love a short cut!? Straight through the cricket and rugby pitches and ready for bed by 9.30pm ready for that lovely early morning start tomorrow!