From Ashburton we headed straight to Christchurch this morning, a further hour and fifteen minutes along the road. We decided morning tea in their botanic gardens would be nice, but people were everywhere and parking was unattainable! We left the city centre for our accommodation in Riccarton, via the Westfields there to pick up some milk and sushi for our lunch. We were able to access our accommodation at 12pm, so we unpacked and had our lunch before we set off again.

We headed back into the city centre for a tram tour of the city. It was actually quite depressing to see the extent of the devastation the earthquakes caused. 70% of the city was affected, and the driver’s commentary as he pointed out many sites and points of interest was always peppered with “they’re going to fix that soon, it will cost $x million”.

Once we disembarked the tram, we headed over to the Cardboard Cathedral, which was built after the earthquake to replace the previous church of Gothic stone that crumbled with the tremors. The street behind that contained an artistic structure called the 185 empty chairs, a monument to the 185 people who lost their lives in the earthquake of 22 February 2011. One problem: I live with several maths nerds who felt the need to count the chairs,only to discover there are 186!! And the maths nerds live with some OCD-ish wonderful people, who find that disturbing! 

From there we travelled to Willowbank Wildlife Reserve, suggested to us for a Maori experience. (Thanks Aunty Beck, it was great!) We did a guided tour that showed us kea and kiwi birds up close, fed some eels, and watched a Maori show – a great cultural experience. The kids picked Lone Star for their last dinner in NZ, which was just up the road from our accommodation, and we were back in time to repack and sleep.