Thursday 16 February Christchurch

Almost a year ago to the day Christchurch was hit by a major earthquake at lunchtime. In the city centre buildings fell, cracked or tipped over. Out in the suburbs more damage and liquefaction where liquid mud oozed out of the ground swamping everything in its path.

Once the view of Cathedral facade in gap

shops in converted containers

One year on and the city centre is enclosed with fences while buildings are pulled down brick by brick. What was once a vibrant shopping district is a quiet pedestrianised strip, no trams on the tram tracks and businesses relocated to trade out of converted containers. The same sort of containers that are loaded on trucks and ships with glass window fronts, electricity, plumbing. The person who conceived this had wonderful vision to enable businesses to continue. There's plenty of parking in the spaces which were once buildings and are now building sites. Almost 200 people were killed in the quake and they are still debating to rebuild or not to rebuild in this quake prone area.
Another casualty of the quake is the tourist trade with many of the attractions including the cathedral and art gallery closed. We visited the small but excellent museum and spent time in the Antartica galleries. It was from Christchurch that Scott, Shackleton and many other adventurers begin their Antarctic explorations. Captain Cook was the first to map the continent but he began his passage from the south part of the island.

Couple of thorns amongst the roses

From the museum we moved out for a saunter around the botanic gardens. Gary and David investigated the sun dial in the rose garden and the two Jacqui's smelt the roses.
Late in the afternoon we drove out to the seaside 'burb of Sumner and saw fallen cliffs with parts of houses perched precariously on the lip and drove along roads under these cliffs with safety barriers constructed from more of those versatile containers.
A second lovely evening with Sue, John and their lively Alsatian, Yogi.