Hard to know what to say to sum up our 2 and a bit months living in Christchurch - some of the photos show what we got up to and some trips we made in the area pre quake. Christchurch itself was a lovely place to live, with great beaches and nearby mountains to explore. We ended up finding a really good house on Manchester St to live in with a great combo of French, Scottish, Irish and Kiwi housemates (our house quite often resembled the UN!). We had some great times there pre-quake, even started to get used to the aftershocks relating to the September quake, but nothing quite prepared us for Feb 22nd. Although it was very sad leaving Christchurch, it definitely felt like the right thing to do to get out of there, and for all those who have to stay we wish them all the best, hopefully life there will begin to get a little easier as soon as possible. Power has now been restored to almost all the city, so the next step is getting all the Eastern suburbs back on water, then follows the big job of sorting out the CBD.
Next for us.... a spot of grape picking on the North Island, to be surrounded by trees is defintely preferable to buildings for the time being!
