Today we got the 9am bus to Christchurch. It was our last trip with the Kiwi Experience. The kiwi experience has been an amazing way to get a sort of introduction to New Zealand. It allows you to meet people and takes the stress out of organising transport.
We got to Christchurch around 1:30pm after a short stop at Geraldine for a shop and toilet break. We checked into our accommodation which is the YMCA. It's not at all like English YMCA's. We are in a 3 bed with no bunk beds which is fab. Then we went for a wander round Christchurch.
75% of buildings were, or had to be destroyed, after the February earthquake 6 years ago, and you can really tell. The whole city is like a construction site. Even the cathedral hasn't been rebuilt yet. I'm not sure if they're planning on rebuilding it or if it's just not happened yet. But as a result there is not much to do in Christchurch. They have a little shopping area called the Re:Start which came about after the earthquake. It's basically a group of shipping containers that have been turned into shops, a bank and a post office. We wandered round that then had a look at some books in Quake City, which is the museum on the earthquake(s) in Christchurch. We didn't go in as it was $20. We had a look at the cathedral remains and wandered round, looking at various street art that's around the place then we headed to the botanical gardens.
We wandered through the gardens back to the hostel as it was around 6pm by this point, and had beans on toast for dinner before heading to the supermarket for supplies for lunch tomorrow. Then we went back to the hostel for an early night.
No comments:
Post a Comment