Kadee & Adoni in New Zealand

Our trip to NZ was originally supposed to be a snow holiday, capped at each end with a brief family catch up.  Nana and all the rellies live in Christchurch. 
We didn't particularly want to stay in Christchurch.  Mainly because of the Earthquake devastation and the constant 'tremors' (which really are just more earthquakes).  Unfortunately we ended up spending 4 of our 11 days there.  My husband has been out of work for 4 months and if we didn't already have non-transferable tickets we wouldn't have gone.  Hence the holiday became 'a family visit' because that was all we could afford. 

Kadee & Adoni got to experience the terror of being thrown out of bed at 3am by 'tremors'.  The roar of the houses shaking is quite unexpected and most terrifying.  The fear, the adrenalin rush, the speed of it, and it's over again.  It's like a giant has picked up the whole house and is shaking it with you and everything else inside.  It's not something we enjoyed.  They also got to meet all of the family in New Zealand and see some of the sights (those that haven't fallen down) of Christchurch.   The city itself was still closed to the public and under military control to prevent looting.  I think alot of people are quite unaware of the devastation there.  900 buildings in the CBD have to be demolished. From a few blocks away you can still see buildings leaning over streets, and resting against buildings on the other side.  Residents there still need to boil their drinking water, and many have Port-a-loos in the street.  There are only half a dozen supermarkets left standing.  Over 20,000 homes have to be demolished.   Nana's included.  All of the family have major damage.  Chimneys down through roofs and cracks in walls big enough to fit your hand through.  None of the doors close properly.  No-one has any pictures hanging, or china on display.  Everything is damaged, bare and depressing.

The snow was a treat!  It doesn't usually snow like that in Christchurch, so we were able to have quite a snow holiday afterall!   We made snowmen and had snowball fights and even made a snow koala.  We also went boogie boarding on the snow which is great fun, but watch out for sheep poo!
Kadee & Adoni joined us on our travels south of Christchurch to see some of Banks Peninsula which included a french settlement called Akaroa where everything is named in French.  It was once a whaling town and there are huge boiling couldrens still along the water front which were used for boiling the whale blubber.  We stayed at the family's bach (holiday house) in Tikao Bay which is directly across from Akaroa.  It's about an hour from Christchurch, through the snowy mountains.  We had a fire place and games to play but no tv, so there were lots of day trips to local Bays around the area, and lots of sheep!

The scenery was postcard perfect, around every bend, and gorgeous despite the low temperatures!  We fossicked along the shore lines and found Paua shells and at a very dangerous beach (where swimming isn't allowed because of the immense waves) we collected beautiful coloured pebbles of green, white, red, grey & blue.  We also found some natural made glass (from where lightning hits the sand). 
At Heritage Park Akarao (see photos) we discovered a Teko Teko (a Maori totem) which protected the mountains. 

PJ McClelland
PJ's Family Day Care, Queensland, Australia