Day 176 New Zealand, Leeson to Christchurch.

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Hello All,



We woke up after a ropey sleep, we both kept waking up worried we might get a parking ticket but luckily in the morning the windscreen was clear!!!



We looked what was about and found there was a cheap swimming pool close, this ticks off two things, 1 exercise and 2 a shower as it seems like an age since our last one. It was a nice pool, they had hot hydrotherapy pools and a few lanes in the swimming pool, and it was good to have a swim. (Vick loved the hot pools and stayed in there the whole time!!). We showered and both were happy and clean!!



We arrived in Christchurch about 1030 and had to park out of the main city as it was free, still and good 2km walk in.



We walked in and found a town crier giving out maps of the city and he was nice enough to mark out all the best sites to see.



We couldn’t believe how many damaged building there are after the 2011 earthquake. The main sites we saw were the 185 white chair memorial for the people who had died during the earthquake, the new paper Cathedral which is there to temporarily replace the main Cathedral until the repairs are completed (we saw the old Cathedral as well).



We walked the shops at New Regent Street and around the Cathedral Junction; this is the main tram station in the city. The shops that were damaged in the quake have been relocated into a shipping container shopping area; it’s really amazing to see how they are recovering from such devastation.



We left about 4pm and drove towards Kaikoura it was a longer drive than we left time for so we parked up at a picnic area for the night. This left us an hour’s drive-in in the morning.



We had a quick pasta dinner and then watched a film before bed.





Love N&V X

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