It was time to return the van that had been our home for the past four months and move on. Our last day of driving was full of adventures. We decided to go for a drive around Christchurch with suburbs. That was interesting. As you might know there was a severe earthquake here in 2011 which was the second deadliest in New Zealand and destroyed much of the city.
Many buildings were completely destroyed and some left too damaged to use. A lot have been demolished, lots of buildings are empty and some are being rebuilt. Driving around town is chaotic since many roads are closed and there is road work in lots of places. This in addition to one way streets made it not a good city to drive in for the visitor. We had to turn around a number of times because the street that looked good on the map was suddenly closed.
Here are some photos from Christchurch. The city has a special atmosphere at the moment with much of it destroyed in the earthquake. There is lots of construction going on and many streets and buildings are closed. To keep the city alive they have built a city center out of containers. It actually looks nice!
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| Christchurch |