Christchurch

Arrived safely in Christchurch this afternoon via Jetstar and now must await my fellow travellers from Australia. In the meantime I got the chance to take the city bus 'down town' to see what I could see. Unfortunately the bus situation is completely upside down from what it was and all the routes are different so that the CBD is avoided. When I got off the bus I had virtually no idea where I was or where to go from there. Fortunately I ran into a backpacker tour guide (I know right what are the odds) and we talked for a good 20 minutes about Christchurch and where I was from and stuff like that. I found out that he owned an antique store down town that had another building collapse on it during the quake. Obviously he wasn't harmed but his store was crippled. They were going to 'red flag' it (do whatever they want to the building without needed consent of the owner) but he was there at the time luckily and got them to 'yellow flag' it (meaning he was allowed to go back into his store and try to take out some of his possessions). All in all a real interesting guy and was happy to get the chance to meet him.