Day 16, March 31, 2016

This was our last full day in New Zealand. We had to move hotels one last time, turn in the car and prepare everything for travel the next day.

The Anglican Cathedral. In ruins since February 2011.

We started the morning by going down to central Christchurch to show the boys the earthquake damage.

Some Maori artwork.

We parked at Cathedral square and walked around the area.

This is the Cathedral, pre-quake, from just about the same angle as the picture above.

Empty lots next to condemned, abandoned buildings, next to live businesses.

The famous shipping containers.

An all too common site in this part of town. Condemned and waiting for its chance to be demolished.

There was a lot of construction going on, but it will be several years before they can replace or fix everything.

After our visit down town we went to the Antarctic center, which is located at the airport and shares space with the US Antarctic Program's buildings.

Little blue penguins.

The penguin colony is made up of nature's rejects. Blind, crippled, too tame for the wild; this is where penguins come to live when they can't survive.

They have a storm room where they drop the temperature and crank up the wind. It felt like a normal day to me.

Rhys and I on the Hagglunds Bv206 ride.

This was the high point for Owyn.

After the Antarctic Center we went to our hotel, a mile away. This was the only time that Google Earth failed us. It's always at the airport. It did the same thing in Manchester. We knew where we were going though so we just drove there. I returned the car and then took the boys to the pool. We ended the day with room service and early bed.

This was the view out our window. We left the door open so we could hear the waterfall.

Two hours in here wore them out nicely.