Christchurch

Wednesday turned out to be very hot at 30° and by the time we got to our friends, Helen and Bill's, house the wind had also died down. We could have cooled off in their pool but somehow ended up happy enough to watch their grandson, Leo, enjoy it.
It is always good to catch up with H& B again - the last time was at our place in February, before that in Auckland and then last year in France when we stayed with them just out of Carcasonne for a few days.

On Thursday they dropped us off in the CBD so we could see the earthquake damage for ourselves. Everyone asks how we found it and it is so hard to describe - firstly it is like the aftermath of a war zone where bombs have just been dropped into what was a populated area. Now it is a derelict, ruined wasteland with only a few people, like us about, holding their cameras and feeling this surreal "end of the world", apocalypse like emotion. I couldn't really recognise the area at all - there are vast barren areas where some buildings have been cleared, mounds of rubble and many broken buildings just waiting to tumble. There was an eerie stillness, cranes on the skyline but very few workmen about and lots of parking spaces all around the fenced off red zone area. One of the few buildings still standing in this area is the former Old Post Office which is now a large, licensed coffee bar called C1, next to Alices Cinematique, which seemed to be quite busy.
They have opened up the roof via a spiral staircase for viewing the damage and the vineyard from which they buy their wine has planted some vines up there around the edge of a seating area so once I recovered from the dizziness of getting up there we were once again able to see the utter devastation of Christchurch's heart.
It was light relief to be able to enjoy the quirkiness of C1 - they have an old treadle sewing machine which has been converted into a water dispenser, the pouring being activated by just "turning the wheel" and the water coming up from under the floor by an inconspicuous pipe. Access to the toilet was also an adventure - as you approached a bookcase it slid silently to the left to let you through. I feel that there were probably other things that we missed while we were busy enjoying our coffee and savoury muffin.
Last night we took the bus to the "self containment inspector" as our certificate falls due this month - no problems there and we are now legal for another 2 years.
We had another relaxing night at Helen and Bills and this morning moved on to Burnham, to get our Electrical WOF, which again was no problem and we are now up to date with everything! Just a small matter of our water pump playing up now - sometimes works, sometimes doesn't, but Len is confident he has the skills to fix it.
From Burnham we were going to drive out to Banks Peninsula but there is heavy rain and the temperature has dropped to about 8-9° (from 30° 2 days ago) and we were absolutely frozen until we dressed as though we are going skiing and wrapped ourselves in the sleeping bags! Instead of being on the road too long we have stopped at the NZMCA camp at Weedons, south of ChCh. There are about 50 other motorhomes here but everyone is staying indoors to try and keep warm, except for the man in the neighbouring bus who visited to sell us some LED bulbs which use a lot less power than our halogens.
The sky is starting to clear and we are warming up - I think we'll have a sunny day tomorrow!