Art City

Another really cool thing that is happening in Christchurch is amazing street art. Some has appeared randomly but a lot of it has been commissioned. It really helps fill the empty spaces and lift spirits.

 Here are a few examples:

Restarting

There are stories of people who have left Christchurch, too traumatised by the earthquake, or burnt out from months and years of trying to re-establish businesses or rebuild houses. But there are also people who love this city and would never leave. There is, amongst the devastation, a real positive atmosphere of optimism for the future.

There are two shopping areas in the city centre which have a mix of cafes, concert spaces, gift shops and boutiques. One is New Regent Street which was not damaged at all! It was constructed in the 1930s after a particularly bad earthquake on the North Island destroyed the city of Napier. Napier was rebuilt using different building techniques and the same techniques were applied in New Regent Street.

The other shopping area is new. The Restart Mall is constructed using shipping containers. It is intended to be temporary but is such a great quirky space to hang out in that I hope it becomes permanent. I ate a seriously good chicken satay pizza here!

 
 
 
 
 



Quake City

We had 13 days of rain during our 15 day trip. Only the last two days were sunny. These were spent in Christchurch - quake city! On September 4 2010 a strong earthquake struck Christchurch which caused considerable damage but no lives were lost. Then on February 22 2011, as the city was beginning to recover, another earthquake occurred. This one was devastating, causing massive damage and taking 182 lives.

It is a strange experience to be driving around a city and seeing where cracks in streets have been repaired, and driving over bumps and waves in the roads, and seeing empty allotments where houses have been demolished and other houses still surrounded by cyclone fencing, waiting to be repaired or abandoned. But city life bustles on. There is plenty of traffic and human activity.

The randomness of the damage in the suburbs is puzzling, but it is in the city centre that the incredible impact is most evident, as well as the quirky sense of quake humour and the positive vibe of recovery that Christchurchians have developed can be seen.

When we rode the historic tram, the driver said they have had so many aftershocks, thousands, than now they don't get out of bed for anything unless it over a 4 on the rickter scale. Between September 4 2010 and May 31 2011, there were 6016 earthquakes detected in the region around Christchurch. 247 of these exceeded magnitude 4. While we were returning our motorhome on the Friday, there was one of 4.2 just west of the city. We were near the airport on the western edge of the city. I didn't not notice it! But, Debbie, who was sitting down waiting, felt something which she wondered about but decided it must have been a large truck driving past. We were on a busy road. But it was not a truck.

In the city centre there are many empty buildings with scaffolding and cyclone fencing around them. There are many vacant lots where buildings have been demolished and not rebuilt.

I was in Christchurch in 2009 before the earthquake. Here are a few before and after photos:

The lovely blue stone building and the wheat sheaves are gone. The wall with the street art below would have been behind the blue stone building. All the shops still standing are closed. The high rise in the background is gone. The tree and the buildings behind it are gone.

Cathedral Square in 2009

 

 The Catholic Church is involved in high court battle to decide what to do about the cathedral which was a truly beautiful and iconic building.

 

Going to church

New Zealand's most photographed church is the little stone Church of the Good Shepherd on the banks of Lake Tekapo. I was a little disappointed as I was hoping to see it surrounded by flowering lupins. (I had seen photos) And I thought it would be romantically remote and lonely and peaceful. (There is a sizable town and tourists by the bus load!)

This photo was taken from the row of shops and restaurants where we had lunch.

 It would be hard to concentrate on the sermon with this view behind the altar and the priest. It would be hard to create a more beautiful window in stained glass - amazing view.

Wild deer

No - we did not see any wild deer. Saw lots in deer farms, but no wild ones. Deer are yet another introduced species which became an environmental problem. Their numbers in the wild have been reduced and now they are farmed.

This is Lindis Pass, a wild tree less mountain range, where the first red deer were released in 1871.

Baa Baa

A New Zealand traffic jam:

Sheep seem to have right-of-way when the farmer is moving them from one paddock to another.
There are a lot of New Zealand sheep jokes floating around and I am not going to repeat them, but New Zealand does have quite a few sheep. Captain Cook put the first sheep ashore in 1773.

In 1982, there were actually 22 sheep per person, but numbers of sheep have dropped and the numbers of people have increased. New Zealand does still have a lot of sheep though - about 7 per person now which is more per person than Australia.

http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/population/mythbusters/3million-people-60million-sheep.aspx

Where there are sheep, there are sheep dogs. The mob that caused the traffic jam above, had 10 dogs keeping them moving along!  This monument to the collie dog in on the shores of Lake Tekapo.

Milford Magic

Everyone who goes to NZ goes to Milford Sound and I think they were all there on January 6th when we arrived!!

We walked out of the Routeburn, hopped in to our van, which was waiting for us as we had paid for Mike from Trackhoppers to drive it there, and then we drove straight to Milford to do a cruise on the Sound. It was very hard to get a parking space. Eventually I parked illegally like a lot of others, but after lunch and before our cruise was able to move the van in to a legal parking space. It had rained most of the way to and from Milford while we drove but stopped for our cruise which was lovely. It is hard to imagine until you are out on the water, but having sheer cliffs rising straight up out of the water for 1000 to 2200m is very dramatic and awe inspiring.

And because there had been so much rain, there were waterfalls every where!

This waterfall is the one all the boats go right in to and you do get rather wet if you are outside!

And lots of young fur seals lazing around - what a good life!