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After we were chucked out of our seats on the coach by an elderly couple, we found some more further back and settled in for the journey. Three hours after leaving sunny Kaikoura we arrived in sunny Christchurch, although we didn't know exactly where we were. With the on going rebuilding of the city centre, the bus stop was a temporary one on the outskirts of town.
As much of the city is still 'unsafe' due to the February earthquake we had to find a hostel which was a bit further out of town. It was a choice of lugging our backpacks on and off two buses and then finding our hostel or get dropped off at the door via taxi, we were feeling lazy and went for the taxi.
We had booked our hostel fully knowing that it was having some exterior work done to it, but when we pulled up, it was surrounded by scafolding and mesh, the taxi driver even questioned if it was open. Open it was though so we went and checked in. The upside to the building work which was taking place was that the hostel put on a free breakfast to compensate for this. However, this was where the upside of our hostel ended. We made our way up to our room and after fully following the coridoor all the way round (in a loop) we could not find our room, we asked someone and they pointed us in the right direction, a room tucked (or chucked is probably more appropriate) away, down the opposite side of the building.
When we opened the door to room 19, and wish we hadn't. Although it was not the worst place we had stayed in but the room was far from, nice. Old, unhoovered, dusty and complete with a horrible old mat. It was completly the other end of the spectrum to the hostel we had just left in Kaikoura.
After speaking to reception about the state of our room, we went to the shop and were told it would be sorted by the time we had returned from the supermarket. The woman on reception was very nice and apologetic about our room, the complete opposite to the manager we encounterd on our return. She almost told us off when she told us that due to the large number of beds the cleaning staff had to change, they must have "scrimped on the cleaning a bit." Lets be honest not the best explanation. However the room had been hoovered and dusted, (the manky mat was still there though) and did actually look and feel a bit better.
Next on the agenda was some washing and most probably the last load of washing we were going to do before getting home, a nice feeling. As you can see (and probably regret even reading this blog) the start of our two days in Christchurch did not get off to the best start and was far from exciting.
To brighten up our time in Christchurch we decided to head out for dinner in the evening. Walking down to the indian we had chosen a bit earlier in the day, we again got to see some of the area where we were staying, New Brighton. Ironic really as alot of it looked pretty old and taty, never the less the meal we had was very nice and defiently brightend up our evening.
The next morning we woke up and headed down to a cafe down stairs (which belonged to the hostel) to take advantage of the free breakfast that was on offer, due to the renovation work going on. After helping ourselves to this we thought it was time to head out in to Chrsitchurch and see the city.
We caught the bus into town and on the way we started to see the true impact of the earthquake. Shops, roads and high rise building cordend off and looking pretty 'broken'. We got off the bus in the middle of town and headed towards the CBD. This has been closed ever since the earthquake as it was too dangerous to let the public in, however after all the work that has been ongoing, they now open a small part of the CBD on weekends, for people to go and have a look round.
As we made our way towards the cathederal, which was devestated in February, the impact of the damage became even clearer. Buildngs which looked to be fairly modern, closed off and empty, some smaller buildings had been completly removed from where they once were, with small piles of rubble in their place. We reached the sqaure and saw the cathedral for the first time, it was a ruined as people have said. It was strange being in the CBD and almost eiry as it was so quiet with the occassional bang from the various demolition teams going to work on the ruined buildings. After walking round the square (which is as far as you can go) we started to make our way back towards the part of town which was open. On the way back we saw, cracks in building which managed to stand the earthquake and dislodged pavements. The whole CBD was one big demolition site and it is hard to believe that this time last year it was a busy city, going about daily life, with hundreds probably doing thier christmas shopping.
We left the CBD area and went for a some what brief stroll around the rest of town. There was only one highstreet of shops, which have been put together using old shipping containers, which all looked pretty cool. Once we had reached the end of the high street we again reached more cordend off areas, all bearing the scars of the earthquake. We did a brief loop of the river before heading back in the other direction and out of the city centre slightly. Everything was still the same though and after about 10 minutes of walking, we decided that we would go for a drink and found a little cafe.
After having a little sit down and seeing what was on offer we decided that we would head back to the hostel to do some fun stuff, like some more washing and booking a shuttle bus to take us to the airport and that was our afternoon and final day time in New Zealand.
In the evening we decided to head out for some dinner, with it being our last night and all (eating out the night before was unintentional) and we made our way to the sea front of New Brighton, a 5 minute walk from our hostel. We had decided to dine on the sea front but after having a quick look at the menu, we decided against it. We opted for a cheaper Italian place instead, which as it turned out was very nice. We had a couple of drinks with dinner to toast our last night in New Zealand. After dinner and a couple of drinks we headed back and did what we seem to do best, pack our backpacks, chucking out a couple of bits we wouldn't need in Fiji.
Before coming to Christchurch we were told that it was still badly suffering from the earthquake and told by a couple of people, including the Kiwi Experience, that there was nothing much to see and do. We wanted to come see the place any way (and as we flew out of there) but after seeing the city first hand, we could see why people said what they did. The devistation is still there and is going to take a fair while until its back to a functioning city again. New Brighton and our hostel were a slight let down compared to Kaikoura but we still had a decent couple of days and now look forward to Fiji.
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