Our New Zealand road trip started in Christchurch, a place we intended on  skipping entirely. But as events do, we ended up in the middle of Christchurch CBD to experience something that far exceeded anything we could imagine. It was akin to having stepped into a post apocalyptic world with ruin almost everywhere you looked yet people going about their day as usual. Add to this mix, peacefully scenic mountains popping up behind every  road and you find yourself somewhere at the cross-roads of inspired and horrified. The damage that washed over this city during the 2011 earthquake remains ever prevalent even today. The undamaged parts remain an ode to the strong English influence in the city's architecture and act as a melancholy reminder of what thrived before . A comforting thought though is that although destruction and its aftermath seems embedded deep within the city, its slowly being chipped away by the wish and determination to rebuild.