My lovely hubby and I were able to 
spend a couple of days in the beautiful South Island recently. We had three days to spend and we decided to go to Banks Peninsular and visit Akaroa which we had long wanted to visit. We arrived on Friday afternoon, hired a little car and drove to Little River on Banks Peninsular, about half an hour from Akaroa.
The scenery is quite amazing there; so different from Christchurch and the Canterbury plain. We stayed at a cute B&B and on Saturday morning we drove to Akaroa. 
We spent the morning seeing the picturesque village of Akaroa…
and then went on a sailing boat in the afternoon.
We saw beautiful Hector’s dolphins when we were out on the harbour. They are beautiful, and unfortunately, seriously endangered.
On Sunday we went to a couple of alpaca farms. 
Alpacas are absolutely gorgeous – gentle, peaceful… 
beautiful soft fleeces, friendly… 
I have fallen in love with them, and I would love to own a couple of the little guys. 
On Monday we went into Christchurch for first time since the February 2011 earthquake. Previously we have driven past and avoided the city centre. I steeled myself and I thought it would be okay, but it was harder than I thought it would be and it made me very sad. The city centre is so quiet, it’s like a Sunday afternoon when the shops are closed. It’s easy to park and there’s not much going on. We saw a couple of building sites, but we saw heaps of flattened spaces where big buildings used to be. The cathedral is derelict and it was hard to get your bearings with so many beloved landmark buildings gone.
We also went to the new ‘cardboard cathedral’. 
It is absolutely beautiful. 
They told us that people come from all over the world to see it, and it never fails to impress. 
It certainly impressed me and I was at a loss for words to describe it. It stands as a symbol of hope for the future. Christchurch is already looking beautiful again.