well day 6 of our trip we were supposed to be leaving Queenstown to finish our stray bus tour and head to Mt. Cook followed by Rangitata and then end up in Christchurch. to make a long story short we were not able to get on the bus, confusion and bad communication from the company which i don't really want to get into. we had to then book a flight in order to get to Christchurch in time to catch our flights back to Auckland... anyway.
we settled in in Christchurch grabbed some Subway and headed to bed early. we were all a little frustrated with the situation and tired from all our traveling.
Day 7 - July 6th -- Christchurch
Danielle and I wanted to find something exciting to do during the day in Christchurch so we got booked in to do the "Adrenaline Forest." i'm so glad we did this! we rode out to this area that had some camping grounds and different parks around. it was so weird driving out there and seeing all the destruction still around, even in areas that weren't in the center of the city and still needed lots of work.
if you've ever done a high ropes course then you know what this was like. basically we had a harness with two clips and a pulley on it. we climbed up each course to start and had to move our clips along as we went. the challenges got harder and higher as we went along. there were definitely some very difficult ones. the hardest though were courses 5 and 6. these were the more advanced ones and it was crazy that i'm so scared of heights and could still do this. i mean i was attached at all times but still, at one point i was walking along one wire, that was at a steep incline moving up to 20m above ground. it was a wonderful experience though and a good workout! i had a blast!
Day 8 -- July 7th -- Christchurch back to Auckland
woke up, left our luggage at the hostel and Caitlin and i started our walk towards the center of Christchurch. it was pretty close to our hostel and a very interesting walk. its just so weird that Christchurch seems so deserted. i'll post some photos but we walked all through the town which is still mostly blocked off with red zones that are still too dangerous to enter. they were still tearing down buildings but a lot were still standing just with rubble all around.
apparently its becoming so hard to rebuild because insurance companies don't really know how to handle the whole situation and there are still earthquakes occurring (there was even one while we were doing the high ropes course) so who knows when another one could hit and take everything out again. it was so sad seeing the town like this. we did find some streets that have been rebuilt and a cute little market running along the street next to the University (which is still blocked off). that was refreshing and the people here seem to have a lot of hope, and everyone wants to work together to make Christchurch what it once was. we got to go through the Cambridge museum which had a lot of new zealand history but then a huge display about the earth quakes. there were videos of what had happened from security cameras and such, which was crazy to see. and there were ruins from different important things around town. it was a great experience getting to see all of this. again, putting a lot into perspective.
we got our shuttle back to the airport, thus ending our adventure in the south islands. it was sad to leave, but i was glad to be heading "home" where i had family, home cooked food and my own bed waiting for. oh and a birthday party for the neighbor, which was also lots of fun!
so that wraps up one of the best trips of my entire life!
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