Oh boy! Today was very exhausting! First we were up at 8am to get brekkie and ready for the day ahead! Which was mainly horse-riding, after that we didn't know what we were doing. We had to be outside at 9am, as that's when the taxi was going to pick us up. We called the taxi company last night and booked for the morning, and when we gave him the address, he said it would probably be around $35, the most would be $40. For a 15-20min drive, ad between the two of us, we were okay with that.

So he rocked up, and we were on our way. It only took about 15mins to get there, and we were super early for our horse ride. When we went to pay him, the total came to over $50! How ridiculous! Needless to say, I'll be giving them a call tonight...

The first lady we saw on the horse trek was pretty rude to us, she kept saying we were too early, but we were very happy to sit on the picnic table and play with the 3 dogs and 3 cats that were excited by the new company. There was a goat too, but he wasn't too happy to see us. So in the end we just ignored her comments about 'If you had of looked on the internet web page...' The animals were cute though! There were 3 border collies that LOVED attention and the cats were so fluffy and playful! The second lady arrived but she was lovely, she was also the one taking us on our horse ride! She got our horses ready and gave us a quick demonstration on how to ride, as it's been ages since I've ridden a horse. Kristy was pretty much an expert though.

Nemo, a good Aussie name, was the horse Kristy got, he was a chestnut colour beauty, and I got Kiwi, the complete opposite. He was the biggest horse, and he looked scary. He also didn't like to be told to stop, he kicked up a bit of a fight when I did that. When I first got on, I felt super nervous and like I'd fall off really easy! But as we trotted along, I became more confident and more used to what I was doing. We followed some tracks and went through water, where Kiwi started splashing around and the lady in charge yelled out 'Oh don't worry, he shouldn't roll!' I wasn't even worried about him rolling until now!

We got back to the stables after about an hour of riding, and my feet were incredibly sore from having them pointed out the whole time. And my knees were a bit tender from them being bent without moving for an hour as well. It was really fun and I would love to keep riding regularly, but it costs too much to do that :(

Instead of getting a taxi back into town, which would probably be more expensive than trip out, the guy who also working on the farm ran a shuttle service. For $30 he would drop us anywhere in Christchurch. We chose to go to Gloria Jeans, even though it was 49min walk back to our hostel. Gloria Jeans was actually in Westfield's shopping centre, and this was a big centre! It took us about 20mins to find the yummy coffee shop, but when we did, it was possibly the happiest moment of the day. We got our usual, a large Choc Macadamia Latte and sat down to enjoy the bliss.

After we finished our coffee break, we came outside and saw this brilliant cupcake stall! They had the most amazing cupcakes, and Kristy and I were eyeing them off trying to decide which one to get. I got my phone out to take a photo but the lady who worked there said no photos were to be taken. Well I guess you didn't want our service then, did you? We walked away pretty mad. But then a souvenir shop cheered us up! We ended up getting heaps of gifts for everyone! Except for you Marcus, still haven't got you anything....

So we wondered around a bit more, mostly aimlessly, until we decided to go. Kristy needed a new bag to carry her stuff around in, as hers' decided to die, and the shop we wanted to go to was 5mins away from our hostel. There were buses running outside the shopping centre, but we couldn't, for the life of us, figure out what was running where. So we walked. We walked a long way, stopping to go into the occasional shop. Then I got us lost, which isn't to unusual, and I got us going the right way again pretty quick.

Unknowingly to us, we were heading towards the 'Red Zone' which is basically the worst hit part of Christchurch. It was horrible to see the damage that is still here, after a year from the massive earthquake. There is so much graffiti, ripped down buildings, broken windows, and I guess a lot of looting would have happened as well. We had to walk around the whole Zone, as it was fenced off, but we did get to see the Cathedral that was the main focus of the quake. We also realised that where we are staying, is quite literally a street away from the danger zone..

I also found out that since we have been in Christchurch, there have been a total of 8 quakes registered. Kristy and I haven't felt any! Maybe there will be more before we leave in the morning.

Not too much happened tonight, Kristy got her backpackers bag, with $50 shaved off the price, and we had to re-pack out luggage again :( My bag either gets smaller every time, or I accumulate more stuff. I prefer to think the first, even though that's wishful thinking.

Tomorrow we head off early to Wanaka!

(Pronounced 'Monica' with a W)