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  • Day 41

    Christchurch

    May 23, 2023 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 11 °C

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    🇬🇧 Christchurch
    Thursday, 18.05. The situation with our sunburns just doesn't get any better, sleeping seems impossible and Lucas carries his & my backpack (2 x 15KG), because even a light T-shirt hurts me. Luckily we find a shopping trolley in Christchurch and can use it to carry our backpacks. We try creams from the pharmacy, but they burn and nothing helps. The pharmacists recommend that we go to the doctor immediately and so we go to a 24-hour clinic. But as usual it is very crowded and the waiting times are long, we are exhausted, plus my travel health insurance is not active yet, so we decide to go back to the Airbnb. It was a very bad and exhausting time, the night was short again and the next day we go to another pharmacy. Again the recommendation to go to the doctor, but we tried it one last time with a cream, this time one that also numbs. It really does make it better, I can sleep again and my skin is healing. Today everything is fine again and finally we can start 100% in New Zealand.

    The same day we arrived, we went to see a van, a Mazda Bongo. The German couple selling the van called "Chateau Bongo" have been travelling around in it for three months and they are now on their way to Australia. Bongo looked good, worked perfectly and had everything we needed. We had other vans on the lookout but had a very good feeling about Bongo. We said goodbye to Linda and Jakob, sat down together and without much thought we decided on Bongo. The next day we met up with them and registered Bongo and handed over the keys; we had now bought our first car and at the same time our own home. Nevertheless, we spend until Friday in our Airbnb to enjoy the luxury.
    We explore Christchurch and notice that the city has a very modern architecture. This is because about 80% of the city was devastated by the earthquakes in 2010 & 2011. By 2016, 12,000 houses in the east of the city had been demolished.
    In Christchurch itself, more than 500 buildings were severely damaged or collapsed, according to estimates by rescue workers.
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