Yesterday I arrived in South Island. The ferry trip over from Wellington to Picton was fairly smooth and the scenery was stunning – when it wasn’t misty! The 3.5 hours passed relatively quickly, that might have been because I was in the comfort of the lounge.

After the ferry, there was a two hour wait before the bus to Christchurch, which was another six hours – phew! The bus stopped at a beautiful little alpine type town called Kaikoura. It was sunny when we arrived, but once that sun started to go down the chill hit me.

On the drive to Christchurch I did notice just how much a lot of the scenery was similar to Scotland. I think I might have to start a picture blog when I get home, “Scotland or New Zealand”

Today I explored Christchurch on the old style tram which was a lot of fun, but I do wonder, why on earth do people pay for a tour, when they either 1) sit and chat through the commentary or 2), bring kids on the tram who are too young to sit still and listen. When granny moved the boy to sit in front of me I got off at the next stop!

It wasn’t the best day weather wise today, the rain was on for a good few hours and then on and off for the rest of the day so I popped in and out of quite a few places to dry off and warm up. The Riverside Centre was having a Christmas in mid-winter festival! There was tinsel, mulled wine, Santa, a Christmas tree and carols!

This morning there was an earthquake followed by multiple tremors in the North Island. It is a reminder how fragile things can be here. Indeed I learnt today that following the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes over 1000 buildings in Christchurch city centre were destroyed. Those of you who know Christchurch will know that it isn’t a big city centre. Percentage wise that amounted to 70% of buildings gone. How would you city/town centre look if it lost 70% of its buildings.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a dry and bright day – hurrah! I think I’ll wander around and see what I missed while on the tram today!