So, lollie24 and I have been in Christchurch for 3 weeks now. We've got ourself a nice place to live in Merivale (at a reasonable price) and work is going really well. We have experienced a couple of quakes as well, and didn't disturb me as much as I expected. The first we felt was the 7.0 near Taranaki. The only thing we don't have is a car at the moment, but as I'm cycling to work and we live right by Merivale Mall that has been put on the back burner.
The only miserable person we've met run a wool/bead shop in Papanui that done nothing but slag off New Zealand. What makes this worse is she is an ex-pom.
We went for a walk around the red zone last weekend and was amazed at how much is missing. It really was an eye opener. But in all that destruction and demolition I still felt positive for the future of Christchurch. The vibrant nature of Re:Start was a good positive feel too.
We're still to start socialising as we've just been trying to settle ourselves down first, and last night was the first time I really missed home as it was my birthday Friday and couldn't spend it with my family.