(May 23rd) First of all, to start my day off I had to walk 20 minutes from my hostel to the meeting point of the tour at 8 am, with everything I had. That was fun.
Now for the tour to commence! I was so excited to make new friends, new memories, and travel! We packed all our stuff on the huge tour bus but then took a 10 minute walk around Christchurch as a little tour. I had already seen the town but it was still really interesting because our tour guide, Josh, pointed out things I missed and had all the background information about the town.
Unfortunately, Christchurch has suffered through many earthquakes over the years and has a lot of rebuilding to do. To help people cope they had a washing machine hooked up with an aux cord and when you put money in it, it would play your music for the whole “washing cycle”. The whole town was scared and in shock of the earthquakes but this helped people come out and dance together to bring some happiness. There was also 185 empty white chairs to represent the people who lost their lives in a building that collapsed during an earthquake. A physical display really brought it into perspective and was really sad to see.
Since Christchurch is prone to earthquakes they had some new building techniques to counter the vibrations so that the building will be stronger. This one church that we stopped into had a roof all made out of cardboard columns so it was sturdy but flexible enough to stay up against an earthquake.
ON THE ROAD.
There was a lot of travel time we had to do on this tour, but you can’t really get around it, towns in New Zealand are all spread out. My eyes were blessed with everything I saw though whether on a bus or out exploring, New Zealand was an absolutely beautiful country.
Our first stop of the day was Lake Tekapo. It took my breath away. It needs its own blog post that’s how amazing it was. Day 1 to be continued…
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