Jan 15
I have come to the conclusion that Canterbury is NZ’s answer to Montana: Big Sky Country at its best, as glacier-carved mountains form a perpetual ring around vast flat plains.
Christchurch impressions:
The city is like a happy Sarajevo – all of the signs of a major battle and destruction, none of the bleakness; just a city willing and eager to move on and do it with a smile. Having never seen footage from the quake (it happened while we were in Vietnam and was old news by the time I reached Cornwall 6 weeks later, so media coverage had died down significantly), it was pretty shocking to see that parts of the city are still struggling a full two years later. Piles of rubble, abandoned homes, rutted roads, empty lots where houses used to stand, chemical toilets along the sides of the streets, the ‘red zone’ cordon… And then, right in the middle of it all, standing in the midst of the crumbling concrete, empty lots and tangles of rebar, are the brightly coloured shipping containers put together to comprise the Re:sene shopping complex. It’s small, but it’s colourful – and it’s a start.
Unexpected sights:
-The Arts Centre in the downtown core, with its wavy, full-frontal glass panelling still intact and unaffected
-In an effort to preserve something of the churches (or perhaps purely from a safety perspective??), the spires of several church towers had been lowered to the ground, to sit beside the once-magnificent structures they proudly topped in their former lives
-The destruction was often worse on second floors. Yes, okay, I now realise that this should’ve been something I remembered from elementary school geography, but there it is. I thought buildings get destroyed from the ground up, by collapsing on themselves like pancakes, not by wobbling like a Bompas and Parr jelly masterpiece.
-The damage was very much ‘luck of the draw’, as though someone played a colossal game of ‘eenie meenie miney moe’ with others’ livelihoods. Some streets sustained damage to all but one home; others alternated between disaster and safety.
Christchurch was an eye-opener for several reasons – not just because of the city’s continuing struggle to rebuild. Along with seeing ruins came INCREDIBLE food and drink. We were quite lucky to be hosted by Jane and Al, another two London friends (and another addition to the HSW tour of NZ). If there’s one thing these two appreciate (apart from statistics, the Tactix netball team and a cracking cup of tea), it’s good food. Raspberry Cafe on our way to Akaroa, the unforgettable Dux Dine, chips salted to perfection in Akaroa, an excellent cup of coffee at Lucianio’s, Mexican nirvana at the Flying Burrito Brothers… The food was absolutely divine.
Grateful for: foodie tour guides, sturdy ground
