Day 27........The City of Christchurch.....

Today I spent the day just walking and exploring Christchurch.  It turned out to be a wonderfully sunny day, and the City that was left so badly scarred by earthquakes warmed my heart too.

I headed in on the bus, still struggling to find a Kiwi that is more than just 'hello, goodbye' and although I hate to say it, I have met few Kiwi's on this trip and not all of them have been receptive!  Still, I was not going to hold it against them as I may have just caught them on a bad day....

So into the city I headed and I was in here by 9am, so I headed in with the commuters, and when I arrived I headed straight for coffee.

Then it was into the visitor centre to get my map and I decided to take a tour into what they call 'the Red Zone' which is the area of the city that is too dangerous for anyone other than the contractors to go into.  You are in a bus but you still have to sign a form with emergency contacts on it and a statement stating that if anything falls on  you, you will die.   Fair enough but i found it  strangely ironic that I did not have to fill out such a form when I jumped 15000ft out of a plane.......

Now, I really could go on for hours talking about what I saw today, and I know for some of you that would be very boring (and costly for me....) so I will try to sum it up.  This city is lovely.  Very British like with statues of Queen Victoria and lots of other famous Brits (as you can tell I have forgotten the already.....)

It was hit by the last earthquake in 2011 and I can remember exactly where I was when it happened.  Sitting in a cabin in Kangaroo Island, Australia, with Theresa, and we just sat and looked at the TV in disbelief.

Now I know disasters happen all over but this one just seemed more close to home, even if it couldn't be further from home, if that makes sense,.

The centre still looks like a war zone, with buildings being held up with shipping containers and steel, some crumbling to the ground and some just gone completely.  It is heartbreaking.  The people go around their day to day business and I had to wonder to myself how we would cope with something like that.  There are all sorts of political issues surrounding the rebuild and there are still people living in homes that are unsafe and they think it will take up to 10 years to rebuild.

But they have come out fighting and little pop up shops and cafes are emerging in  these containers, they are making the best of a bad job and the city is becoming funky because of it.

It still has a lot of charm and I can see what it would have been like before, and kinda kinda like it!

There is a beautiful memorial to the 185 people who died, and it stands (or rather sits) across from the building where most people lost their lives - 115 from there alone.  There are 185 different chairs, donated from all over, painted white and all facing a new, temporary cathedral they are building, and with a little cardboard chapel at the rear with the names and countries of all those who died.  They one thing that struck me was that the other than Christchurch, they came from Japan or China, all visitors and you don't really think of that.

The red zone tour was really informative and so was an exhibition they have on in the container village, called Quake City, and it has pictures and artifacts and personal accounts of that day.  So interesting and moving.  I've had a right cultural day!

It really was an eery.feeling sometimes, I was in Victoria Park and there was not a soul there.  Just me, beautifully manicured lawns and birdsong all surrounded by fences and danger signs and crumpled buildings.

So after walking myself around for almost 8 hours, enjoying the sunshine and a kebabs thing bigger than my head (served by lovely young men in a caravan....) I headed back to the bus stop and ultimately back to Trevor.


Now I did take lots of pictures but i will only show you a selection (famous last words.....) as I am sure you do not want to spend your morning looking as broken buildings.  But some are really quite  amazing and others are happy so I will let you make your mind up.


And so ended my day in the city.  Me and Trev shared our penultimate evening together with a few beers and a pot noodle and then it was time for bed as I have an early start in the morning.  I am taking the Trans Alpine train through Arthurs Pass (I have been informed it will be painless for Arthur.....)