We’ve been on a trip! From where we are now, it was a long trip. It is quite the odd experience to sit on a plane and watch the days collapse into each other, as you sit there for a night, a day, another night, and most of the next day …
Five security check in 36 hours. It was a little draining. We arrived to see the best the Christchurch could offer us!
Which made for exciting times on the roads as we wound our way through the flood waters to surprise our target on her birthday!
The surprise was a HUGE success! There was much gasping of breath, clutching of chests, and crying through hysterical laughter! Though, some were more moved than others.
The next day you’d never know there had even been rain. We headed out into the town to see what had changed in the two years since our last visit.
Seeing the state of the Arts Centre was awful and yet hopeful all at once. It’s awful to see it in that state, but wonderful to see it being rebuilt too.
It is one of the pieces of Christchurch that I miss terribly. It was always previously one of my happy places. Walking in and around all the artists and craftsmen plying their trade in the ancient halls. The smell of the wood turning, the colours of the yarn from the spinners guild, and the fudge from the Fudge Shop!
It was therefore gratifying to see that you could still purchase from some of the artists across the road from the rebuild! And purchase we did! For those of you follwing along on Twitter, you’ll know that we bought some fudge in the flavour of our wedding cake! The same flavour I’ve bought every visit since our Honeymoon; white chocolate and raspberry!
From there it was up the street to the museum! It was wonderful to see it still standing, and open to the public!
Stay tuned for the rest of our massive trip in the coming days!
ghoti industries 
Maybe the puppy was very moved and emotional and is sleeping in the photo to recover from the excitement? 😉
Glad to see that they are working to repair and rebuild these spaces; in some cases, destruction is seen as an opportunity to focus resources elsewhere and rebuilding doesn’t take place. I hope they have enough funds and support to finish the project and restore the buildings fully.
That could be it with regards to Benji!
The difficulty with the locals is that what progress has been made so far is mostly infrastructure under the ground. From what we gathered in our brief time there, people are getting a little frustrated hearing about how much it’s all costing when they can’t “see” any progress. I think the above ground work is due to start any time now.
Just reading your posts in order so I haven’t gotten to the ones after this yet……. I’m so excited for you being able to travel home and to surprise your loved one!!!! Off to look at the pics!!!!
It was a massive trip, and we fit a lot in, but SO MUCH FUN!!! 😀