The 'supposed'* finale of my New Zealand getaways was the countries capital - Wellington. Located at the bottom of the North Island, Wellington is well known for being a very windy city (making the flight in extra enjoyable for me, as you can imagine). The stress of this had such an impact on me, I left my handbag containing my passport and all my money, on the plane. Well done me. Suddenly I was that crazy person we all snigger at, running through the airport desperately telling any staff member "I LEFT MY HANDBAG ON THE PLANE!!". It's okay, I got it back.

I really wanted to visit Christchurch whilst I was in New Zealand. Mainly because it was one of the only places I had heard of due to the earthquakes in 2011. 

Realistically, in 2011 I was a (more) self-absorbed, uni student that was mostly drunk or crying about hating university, so I hadn't really taken much notice of the news or actually how bad these earthquakes were. 185 people lost their lives, and several thousand were injured (Google'd that). The devastation was extreme and 80% of the city had to be demolished and rebuilt (Learnt that on my tour) - something that they are still doing today.

During my time in Auckland, I have met a couple of people from Christchurch who have told me their stories, so I was interested to check it out for myself. Of course, as normal I went too far with my research and ended up lost in YouTube videos of earthquakes, so I was a little bit nervous about this trip - even more so when there was another minor earthquake 2 days before my departure.

I stayed in Breakfree on Cashel. The location and price were perfect for what I wanted. I was in Christchurch Friday evening until Sunday morning, so it was a short and sweet trip. The hotel itself was interesting. I'd managed to pick the hotel right next to the red light district, so alarm bells were ringing that I may be staying in some kind of brothel. Luckily that didn't turn out the be the case, I was, however, staying in a pod. To be fair it was pretty cosy, but there was no window, just a massive mirror which means I basically had to stare at myself the whole time which was a little uncomfortable, and it was quite noisy - but not unbearable. 

First on my agenda was to visit Christchurch gondola (cable car, not the Venetian canal boat) because I needed to add yet another good view photo to my collection, and as Christchurch is a pretty flat city (this made me SO happy), this was the place to go. 

As rain was forecast for the day, I headed there as soon as I got up. My ticket included a shuttle bus as it's a 10/15 minute drive.  

It was pretty quiet there and being on my own I got a cable car to myself, which I was happy about for approx. 30 seconds. As I started to go up, I remembered how scared I am of heights. I literally cry every time I get on a plane, and there I was about to go up a mountain in a little cable car, in the wind, in a city that has earthquakes every now and then. 

Just as I had finally decided I was potentially not going to die, halfway up the cable car jolted to a halt with an announcement that we had 'stopped for loading' and this could take 2-3 minutes. 

STOPPED FOR LOADING. 

So there I was on the side of a mountain in a little pod swinging wildly in the wind convinced I was about plunge to my death

That was fun.

When I eventually got to the top, all I could think about was the fact I had to get back down. I took a few photos of the view and went on a little train ride which I think was meant for children, but I needed a minute to contemplate my life. 

I stood staring at the exit for about 20 minutes and eventually asked the attendant if there was any other way of getting down. There wasn't. She did, however, offer the alternative of riding down with a woman and her toddler. Better than dying alone. These brave people were on their third cable car ride of the day, so they were pros.
Suddenly I was whale-watching (not really) with a 2-year-old, and her mother, who was from England so we also had a common interest.
Life was looking up. 

I also didn't die on the way down, FYI. 

As soon as we got back to the city centre, the sun came out and it turned into a hot day. So I took a little walk around Christchurch Botanic Gardens. If I had more time (and hadn't been on my own) I would have loved to kayak down the river, but instead settled for a wander around, dodging the ton of Lime scooters flying past. For my non-NZ based friends that may be reading this. The lime scooters are pay-as-you-go electric scooters that have in Auckland and Christchurch. Don't worry I have ridden/fallen off yet.







After walking around the park for a while to recover from my earlier ordeal of the day. I decided to do the tram tour of the city (I actually bought my ticket as a package with the gondola ticket). The tram runs all around the city centre, and it has some hop-on-hop-off stops. The driver also gives a commentary (mainly about earthquake damage and top attractions in the city). Although the trams are small and could be quite crowded, I really enjoyed the slightly different way of seeing the city. To loop around the whole track, it took about 40 minutes if you don't get on and off). It was very interesting to see the contrast of brand new buildings and buildings that have been damaged and abandoned since 2011. There is also a lot of car parks and empty open spaces. The driver explained that there were most likely buildings in most of those spaces before the earthquakes, but the buildings were demolished and not replaced. One of the buildings that caught my attention the most was the cathedral. Right in the centre of the city stands a very badly damaged cathedral with one side of it almost completely destroyed. Almost 8 years later and they haven't been able to find a way to restore what was once a beautiful city landmark.


One of the top places that had been recommended to me in Christchurch was New Regent Street. Visually it was a beautiful street, The buildings had an art deco look, and reminded me of Miami - especially when the sun was blazing. For a lone traveller, however, there wasn't much there for me to do. There was a few restaurants and bars but nowhere I felt comfortable going on my own. I did pop into a souvenir shop for my magnet though (side note: it's really hard to find a decent magnet that says Christchurch. It's actually easier to get an Auckland magnet in Christchurch!).

As I exited the street, a lady started walking alongside me and showing me photos of her dead relatives and then asking me for money. I told her I didn't have any on me (genuinely didn't) so she started screaming at me that I was a horrible person, repeatedly, as I walked down the street.



I ended up back in the city centre in search of some lunch. As I was on limited time, I didn't make food a priority on my trip. Normally this would be the most exciting part, but it's not really as fun sitting in restaurants alone. So lunch was my only meal out and I didn't go too fancy. I chose a small American style deli for a hotdog.

Next up was the Art Gallery.
Honestly, art galleries are not really my thing. Which is odd, because I consider myself to be quite a creative person. So I pretended to be cultured for about 15 minutes and then snuck out a side exit to avoid the lady that was trying to make me donate.
It was a nice building though, I'll give it that.
I did, however, appreciate the street art that was dotted around the city.


Instead, I tried the museum (more my thing). The museum is free (donations recommended) so it was nice and busy, with a good selection of exhibitions.
Although, I was kind of cultured out by this point and my feet were starting to ache, so it was a flying visit where I spent the majority of the time eating cake in the cafe. Still counts though, right?

After a couple of hours shopping (weirdly, my aching feet made a miraculous recovery) I decided to head to the new cinema complex in the city centre. I arrived at 6pm on a Saturday evening and EVERY film that night appeared to be sold out, except from Bohemian Rhapsody which started at 6pm (so I was already late after buying my ticket) had 1 seat left - obviously a sign, because it was a really good film and I'm so glad I ended up there.
 The cinema itself was HUGE. I couldn't believe just how many people were in one screen. I had been thinking to myself all day how quiet Christchurch was, turns out the whole population is at the cinema!

My final verdict of Christchurch was that it is one of my favourite places to visit in New Zealand. If I went back again and had some more time, I'd love to rent a car there and explore the area more. But for a flying visit, there was plenty to do in the city centre. I would be interested to go back in a few years as I think the city is rebuilding and growing at an amazing rate and would love to see how this continues. 

It was time to say farewell to our camper-van which was partly sad, but we were now heading for luxury so I also couldn't care less. Of course as soon as we arrived in Brisbane the storms started. Which was fine, I can deal with the rain. I'm from England after all - in fact it was quite refreshing.

We hopped on a bus to the city and even got a free journey - I think the driver felt sorry for us because we looked like drowned rats, but whatever works eh?

So we get to the CBD, and start our 'short 17 minute walk' as Hollie described it. It wasn't. I had a 23kg suitcase with wonky wheels, and the hill was big. There was a point that my face was so wet and I wasn't sure if it was rain, sweat or tears (oh look, I'm being really dramatic again!).  Halfway up the hill and after kicking the case screeching with anger, a lady pulled up her car, jumps out and asks me if I'm having trouble getting up the hill. This time there was definitely tears rolling down my cheeks and when I told her 'yes, yes actually I was having trouble getting up that hill' with a very feel-sorry-for-me-and-offer-me-a-lift-because-I-love-getting-in-the-car-with-strangers face, you'll never guess what she did next...

She said 'oh dear', got back in her car, and drove off.

Excellent.

We did get there eventually. Obviously. And of course when we got to the hotel they informed us of the 'really handy' free bus that goes from the CBD to the top of the hill. I wanted to throw myself back down the hill.

It pretty much didn't stop raining the whole time we were in Brisbane. Which wasn't highly convenient as we had paid for a hotel with a roof top pool for a week of relaxation and recovery. The highlight of this though, was that I purchased my rain poncho. Unfortunately I didn't actually get to wear it whilst in Brisbane - but I can confirm it did come in handy in my future.

So instead we went out to explore, and I'm so glad we did, because even with the rain, Brisbane turned out to be my favourite of the Australian cities we visited. It was a little smaller than Sydney and Melbourne, but I preferred that. There were big shopping centres in the centre, and great river, and lots of artwork and pretty sights. We did initially struggle a little bit to find places to eat in the CBD that weren't fast food - but that was definitely because we didn't know the right places to look. I'm sure if we had been with a local there would have been loads of places. Whilst in Brisbane we did have our first Australian Nandos though, and FYI they do paella!

We stayed at the Hotel Chancellor, which was amazing. We had a balcony overlooking the city from the top of the hill, and at night the view was incredible. As mentioned previously, there was a free bus that took us straight into the city. It otherwise was about a 10-15 min walk. There was also a gym and pool on the roof - also with amazing views, and the staff were very friendly and helpful. They gave us a map and told us the areas that we should visit, and offered to sort out any tickets we may require.

On our first day, we headed straight to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary (easily accessible by bus - journey time is about 45 mins), but it was still raining and when we arrived (at about 10am) we were told that they had sold out of koala photo opportunities for that day, so we decided to abort mission and come back on another occasion. We jumped back on the bus and headed back to the CBD. We got off at Brisbane museum and took a walk along South Bank. This is where you will find the Brisbane sign - an obvious major photo spot. At first, I was disappointed to see that the sign is actually fenced off, but then I realised this is way better as it stops people climbing on it and ruining photos (#amsterdamproblems).

As there was a break in the rain, we decided to take a ride on the Brisbane Wheel, as there was no queue. Of course, by the time we got on, the rain started again, but at least we were nice and dry in our little pod. The wheel was actually pretty fun - it has some great views of Brisbane, and you get a commentary recording playing for half the journey giving you information about the area and what you are looking at. There is an opportunity to buy a photo book souvenir, but it is $40 so we decided against that one.

After a spot of lunch, we headed to the botanic gardens to explore. Another beautiful place and well worth a walk. The rain had stopped, but it was incredibly humid! We did a big loop through the gardens, and ended up back at the other end of South Bank - this is when we discovered that there was a lot more to South Bank than we had realised. If we had kept walking past the wheel, we would have found the large selection of restaurants/bars and huge public swimming pools. We headed back the next day and had lunch at really nice Mexican along the front. Major eyes bigger than belly moment though. It was delicious though. Brisbane also has free Wi-Fi throughout - weirdly mine only worked when in Southbank.

We spent our Sunday afternoon fighting the rain and attempting to have a swim. It pretty much consisted of us getting in the pool, bracing the rain for about 5 minutes and then running back indoors. We would sit on the bed for 10 mins, spot a bit of blue sky and repeat all steps again. It would have been totally more bearable if the swimming pool wasn't on the roof of the 12th floor - a little breezy!! Unfortunately, there was no hope of an Australian tan for Hollie to go home with.

The next day we were on a mission to get our koala photos. We got up super early and were on the first bus running to Lone Pine. We were actually so early that we had to sit outside for an hour because they weren't open. It was worth every minute. As soon as we entered the park, we went straight to buy our tickets. The woman in the shop told us not to queue yet because they don't start taking photos until 10am - she advised us to go to the kangaroos whilst we waited as it would be really quiet. And she was so right! We had the whole kangaroo area to ourselves for about half an hour. 30 whole minutes of kangaroo selfies - we were in heaven and had so much fun. After we cleaned all the kangaroo slobber off our hands we headed to the koalas and got in the queue. It was all very quick. You only get to hold the koala for about 20 seconds so the photos were limited - the ticket does include a photo taken by a photographer. But we had finally achieved our number 1 goal for Australia - even if we were cutting it fine leaving it the day before Hollie went home.

That afternoon, we went back to the CBD and took a ride on the free river ferry - yes, completely free, and it was such a long trip, I was really impressed. There were options available for tourist river cruises, however with this option available it seems mad to pay (unless you want a tour guide I suppose). The sun had even decided to make a reappearance, and we spent about 2 hours cruising along the river. I even started to get a bit too hot! (Don't worry, it rained again when we went back for a swim). There are lots of stops on the journey, so if you have plenty of time, you can explore more areas of Brisbane. We decided to just go all the way around and sightsee from the boat. There were a few seats upstairs that were outside - it was very relaxing, but sun cream is a must!

On our final day, we took one last stroll through the city centre, and had a browse around the shops. There was plenty to do in Brisbane, and still lots of things that we didn't have time for. Out of the cities we went to, I would pick Brisbane to live in - even with all the rain!

As the time came to go to the coach station, it was time for me and my suitcase to tackle the hill again. I decided it was not necessary to get a taxi, because obviously it would be way easier going down hill. That was all good and well until 2 out of 4 of my suitcase wheels fell off.

So that was a longer walk than expected.

At the station, Hollie and I had our final McDonalds ice cream - we basically had one a day whilst travelling, and then said goodbye at the coach station. I was on my way to the Gold Coast and Hollie was heading back to England. We had spent a whole month together 24/7, so of course our goodbye was a very Megan style 'see ya - safe flight'.

I'm such a delight.

But it's okay because I wrote a cute Facebook post to say bye that didn't involve me sobbing.