Christchurch

We thought people were over-exaggerating when they told us to avoid Christchurch.  This place is a ghost town!  After almost a year, many of the buildings downtown are still in shambles and the recent quakes have done nothing to help.  We arrived today by bus around 7, and it was eerie driving along and seeing fewer and fewer people & cars as we approached the city center.  Unlike Auckland with it's huge skyscrapers and busy metro area, Chch (Christchurch) has beautiful river greenbelts and is more scenic.  Sadly, many of the classic churches have crumbled or are being torn down; the brick architecture doesn't hold up well against the earthquakes.  Luckily, we're only in town for one night so we can pick up our CAMPERVAN tomorrow morning.

And let me tell you, we are so psyched that we finally booked a van.  A recent cancellation means that we get an Escape van all to ourselves for a week.  We're jetting straight down the coast to see all the beautiful national park areas including the Queensland & Lake Wanaka area (where we plan on skydiving over the lake) and the Fjordlands.  I'm hoping to squeeze in a massive day hike around Mount Cook before I have to fly out, but I'm learning that it takes much longer than we first thought to get from place to place so it might have to wait for a future trip.

Still raining, although looking sunnier as we head south.  Getting nervous about coming back to the States and jumping back into school & work, but all's well!

Until next time,
Kate