It was such a long flight and we felt the toll as although we got some sleep we kept waking up as we were uncomfortable and a little cold. We looked out of the window to see the Southern Alps covered in snow, which we at first thought were clouds as they reached high in the sky. It looked very picturesque out of the window and we were both excited to finally reach New Zealand. The immigration officer was very happy and did not make me feel intimidated one bit, but I was asked whether I had a flight booked to leave the country. I made a dash to the toilet whilst Andrew went to the baggage carousel. I returned and as soon as I put my bag on the floor a dog appeared and began sniffing my bag with curiosity. The officer in tow asked whether my bag could be searched and so I obviously said that wasn't a problem. I was then asked whether I had ever had fruit in my bag. It was a bio-security check but I couldn't say if I had or not as the bag had been everywhere with me. In the end, after a thorough search, I was allowed to proceed to the security scanner. We were then asked if we had collected any wood from Thailand, which we hadn't, before placing our baggage on the conveyor belt. I was relieved to leave security and pass in to New Zealand! 

We found a public phone in Christchurch airport and rang 'Kiwi Basecamp' to inform them that we had arrived at the airport and so we were ready to be picked up . The driver was already out in the van which meant we had to wait around thirty minutes, so we sat and had a coffee. We then braved the cold outdoors and made our way to the pick-up point where we were sat waiting for quite a while before the 'Kiwi Basecamp' van finally pulled up. The driver was very friendly and spoke to us about the earthquake as we drove to the hostel in Christchurch. We passed quite a few buildings that had been completely destroyed by the earthquake and piles of bricks were all that remained, as well as buildings that were being held up by supporting beams of timber. However, we were assured that there had been no aftershocks in the past week! We reached the hostel and found our four bed dormitory that was empty but freezing as the windows had been propped open to let in the chilly air. We both had a hot shower and then went for a walk around Christchurch, but it was completely empty. There was no access to the city centre as it was boarded off as a safety precaution. We couldn't even find an open restaurant so we decided to return to our hostel as they offered a free lift to the local supermarket. We bought a few staple items for our campervan and when we returned to the hostel we made chilli and rice. I was still frozen after drinking a hot Milo so I crawled into bed and snuggled beneath the duvet. It didn't take me long to fall asleep although according to my body clock it was only 4pm! I woke up when other people entered the dormitory and then I couldn't get back to sleep. Andrew also had the same problem and we were wide awake at 12pm. Andrew was like a small child on the top bunk as he couldn't keep still. In the end we decided to get up and make a hot Milo but this didn't have the desired effect as we were awake until at least 4am.