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The Christchurch/Kaikoura part of our trip was very different from the rest of our New Zealand travels because Sofia has some distant relatives who live in the area. We arrived in Christchurch at about 1 in the afternoon and had that day to explore the city. Everybody had warned us how affected it was by the earthquake, but we didn't quite believe it until we were there. Every other building in the centre seemed to be in ruins or knocked down, and even just looking at the horizon you can see cranes all over the place. You'll never be short of somewhere to park in Christchurch as every bulldozed site is turned into a car park. We visited the restart mall, a temporary mall built after the earthquake out of shipping containers. We also found some of the art pieces that have been put up around the city, made from things like broken chairs and other house hold objects. There is a beautiful memorial to the people who lost their lives in the 2011 earthquake, with a white chair set out for each person, and across from it the cardboard cathedral that has been built while they try to decide what to do with the old cathedral, which is almost completely in ruins.
The next day we were picked up from our hostel by Sofia's cousin Lucy - luckily she had the forethought to look up Sofia on facebook so knew who to look for, having not seen Sofia in 10 years. She took us out to her house in the countryside around Christchurch. There we spent a wonderful afternoon playing with her two children and the menagerie of animals they keep. It was far from all the tourist spots we've been staying, and it cannot be exaggerated how nice it was being in an actual house for the first time in months. We were dropped back in Christchurch the next day, to stay there one more night, and that afternoon we went to a rather pretentious cinema where they didn't even sell popcorn. We watched a British comedy, causing us for the first time to become nostalgic for the rolling hills of the English countryside.
The next day was a long traveling one: we were up at six to get the bus up to Kaikoura, taking several hours, there we were dropped on the side of the road and picked up again by more of Sofia's family. We were driven out to their farm on the outskirts of Kaikoura, where we stopped briefly before being handed off to two eighteen year old boys, who were to drive us to the remote farm run by another of Sofia's cousins. This drive takes about two and a half hours and goes right over the mountains into a valley. We sat in the back of the boy's truck, with their guns pointing right at us, and decided we would just have to trust that they knew what they were doing. It turned out to be a fun drive, the sun beating down and dust pouring through the open windows of the truck, narrow paths wound themselves through the mountains and we even stopped once to watch the boys shoot at (and miss) some goats in the far distance.
We got to the farm safely and were met by Sofia's cousin Fiona and her two young children. That evening was spent playing with their litter of eight puppies and unpacking in our room, where there were thankfully no bunk beds in sight. We spent five nights out on the farm and they were by far our favourite nights of the trip. Despite being in the middle of nowhere, there were always plenty of people around, either working in the farm or simply there to help out. We spent one day helping Fiona and her family move, from one house to another larger one about 100m away. Another day was spent being driven all the way to the far end of the farm, taking about two hours to get there. The valley is breathtakingly beautiful with a river flowing through the middle and tall mountains on either side. Another morning we were woken up to be told we could have a ride in their helicopter, so ran out in our pyjamas and were each flown around for a bit, getting to see the farm from above and see the foals that had been born the day before. We got to know Spratt, the guy who had driven us in, pretty well and he even trusted Sofia to drive his truck while he sped alongside on a quad bike, Martha clinging on to the back. In the evenings everyone would gather at Fiona's house for a meal and one night we played a very agressive game of trivial pursuit, another playing a homemade game of monopoly using all the nearby homesteads. It was so nice just to stop for a bit: no moving rooms, no long bus journeys, we just stayed in the same place for almost a week and although we developed a routine of sorts, no two days were the same.
We reluctantly left the farm and returned to Kaikoura, where we spent two more nights. We did the obligatory dolphin watching trip, but opted not to swim with them for the rather steep price of $100. Since we were some of the only people not swimming, a lot of the time we had the boat completely to ourselves and stood right at the front where the dolphins jumped around, only about a metre below us. Perhaps a wise decision on our part as almost all those who swam ended up very cold and very seasick. On our last evening Spratt and Sina, two friends from the farm, happened to be in Kaikoura so we payed a visit to the not so lively nightlife with them. The night ended with difficult goodbyes as the next day we were leaving the South Island.
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