December 30, 2011 by Craig Hello to our family and friends in Australia. I am with Mum and Dad, who have eschewed the hassle of Xmas in Sydney to join me on a 2 week trip around the South Island of NZ. The first thing to say is that it has been unusually warm and sunny here - everyday , in fact, since we arrived on Christmas Eve (even Milford Sound, which is normally brooding, cloudy and wet). We arrived in Christchurch the day after the recent double earthquake on Dec 23. But all was fine for us (I did feel two small aftershocks during the night, but that was all). The rubble and destruction of the Feb quake is still really evident. We wandered around the roped off "Red Zone" , peering into pubs and
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