Christuskerk: not a totally pain-in-the-ass free experience

Christchurch. You sometimes might think how silly the Dutch are with there placenames, but the Kiwi's aren't any better. It would sound like Christuskerk, which is a stupid name, but in English you can get away with anything because it sounds soo coool. Anyway nor Christ, nor God was here when the earthquake hit Chch in 2010 and 2011. Most of the CBD is now a redzone, meaning they put barriers around the whole center and so you can't get in, it's too dangerous. It really looks like a ghost town there, empty houses and buildings. A bit like in the movie 'I am legend', but without the zombies. It's really interesting to see, but all what has left is a boring city. Because everything in the center, the most interesting part normally, was destroyed, there is nothing left to do or see. There is now a project called Re-start, where some bussineses have relocated themselves in shipcontainers. A good plan for when another earthquake hits the city. Not unlikely because they still feel quakes every now and then. For me this is the terminus of the trip, which involves, inevitably, getting rid of the car. In short, this last week pretty much resembled my first week. I arrived on thursday because I would meet with some people who were interested in the car. In the end nobody showed up. Meanwhile I was doing all the free stuff you can do around here, like the Airforce and Canterbury Museum and a cool farmers market with local products, but that's pretty much it. I mean you can do Christchurch in a day, and I would be stuck here for a week. Help. I just rushed through other cities because they were so fucking boring, and Chch is nothing else. On top of that I forgot about the Easter weekend, meaning everything was closed for days. No library, no supermarkets, and I was just running out of food, and most importantly, no car market. I had to drop my price a few times, so more people would respond. And they did, but once they saw the car, nobody wanted to purchase it. Untill today. Yesterday I went to this Backpackers Car Market, where they ask like 95 bucks to display your car in front of their business. I didn't want to pay that. There is virtually nobody buying anything now. Their whole backyard and garage was stuffed with vans and cars. One guy was already trying for two weeks to get rid of his car. So I was thinking, I just park my car in the street and if there are customers coming out again I can talk to them. Damn, this office woman, a fat blond cow, got really pissed off, and stold me I was stealing their customers. But those 3 girls were leaving anyway, so what what's the big deal. She noticed my license number and stuff, but I just took those three girls in my car. But no luck here. These were really long and boring days. Basically you just wait and wait, and maybe nobody will show up that day. And if somebody does, just keep smiling. After soome hours I started talking to a Chilean painter who just lived next to the car market. He would buy my car for 800dollars if I couldn't get rid of it. Ok, nice back-up plan. Meanwhile I saw some other people at their home in Hei Hei (haha, funny name). This guy used to be a mechanic, so no way to deceive him, but he told me the car had been in an accident and was poorly repainted and restraightened. The other thing was the battery, which was actually too high and too big, and was touching the bonnet. So if the small red rubber on the +pole of the battery wouldn't have been there, the whole car might just have gone airborne. I really need to take some basic mechanic courses once I'm back home. But today was salvation day for my ass, because I got rid of the car. After the boss forced me to remove my For Sale notes or getting towed away this morning, because I was violating some business protection-competition law, and a whole day of waiting, two people wanted to buy it without testdriving or anything. They only offered 800dollars, but I didn't hesitate here. I lost a lot of money, but it's still better than a scrapyard or just nothing. What a relief. I got really desperate here. Some people just pay 450dollars to the market and wait for the next season so they can resell it for them. But considering the poor condition of my car - shit battery, broke radiator, wheels not aligned, no more profile on some wheels because of all the gravel, old cambelt, low oil,.. - a too costy and tricky option. I could as well just drive it into the ocean or set it on fire. I feel a bit sorry for those two people, but sometimes you have to be hard, and anyway what do you want if you just pay 800dollars. Like I said, God is not here, so he couldn't possibly be watching. So for the moment I am staying at the botanical gardens, which are really nice. It's a gigantic park, 265hectares, and an ideal spot for camping. It's just one of my principles not to stay at a hostel during the whole trip, except the start maybe, so I want to finish it like that. Just two full months of living in a car and tent. I just need to climb over the spiky fence every evening because they close it. Camping in a city, it's a kind of a challenge, just not to get discovered and staying hidden. And not paying any parking, no fining, no cops, great8 Just 2 more nights and then this gigantic beard Viking will come home, after more then 7000km by car, at least 350km on foot, gallons and gallons of petrol, 4 pair of ruined socks, 1 shredded pants, 1 pair of destroyed shoes, dozens of sandfly bites and blisters, oceans of sweat, thousands of pictures and memories for life, meeting a lot of crazy extraordinary people, 1 deer for dinner, hundreds of euros poorer, and heaps of good ideas and future (car:-))lessons richer. I would say: MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!