Christchurch

Blog 30 - Onwards towards Christchurch

How those sheep have grown overnight!

The Morning clouds over Mount Sunday made the decision of Jacky to climb 'Edoras' at sunset an inspired choice and today we leave for our final leg to Christchurch, the main city of South Island.  Our lodge stay was comfortable and after taking some final pictures we travel back along the same 'unsealed' road through the scenic river valley and past the lakes towards the staging town of Mt Somers. 

Lat look back toward the Mount Potts Station

We know this will take just over one hour as we cannot drive more than 15/20km (8-10mph) along this sometimes very bumpy truck road. Nancy is not a 4x4 but is coping very well with the suspension challenges. 

Mount Somers General Store

We stop at the local historic general store in Mt Somers for a morning coffee and some now obligatory carrot cake before taking the inland route to Christchurch. The scenery is similar to what we have been seeing in the flat lands over the past few days. Rocky, small hills, tussock grass and plenty of my woolly friends for added company along the way. It's very Scotland at times and reminds me just how close relatives these countries are both in landscape and early settler history. 

Views near Whitceliff on the road to the City

We lunch on a children's play ground bench off the inland scenic route at a small settlement called Whitcliff. We had been looking for a quite spot to munch our sandwiches and just happened to turn off this way. Even the play areas have beauty in this wonderful country. Back drops to hills and forest, green lush grass and gardens full of different flowering bushes and flowers, so different from the residential areas of home. 

We arrive in Christchurch mid afternoon and after finding a parking spot head straight for the Cathedral area where four earthquakes hit within a few months of each other in 2010/11 and changed this city skyline for ever. I have to say I was shocked, upset, emotional at what I saw. We in the UK cannot possibly for one moment understand or experience what must have happened here in those moments during and through the aftermath period when further shocks and tremors rocked the city and suburbs for months afterwards.

Christchurch Cathedral

I stand looking at the historic neo-gothic Cathedral, its tower and end wall collapsed showing the inside to the world as if to say "look in, do not fear for you are still in safe hands". It is boarded off with fencing and has large containers all down one side in case the building collapses, when it would literally contain the debris inside the cordoned off areas. We walk around almost in a daze wondering what happened here, how lives had been affected, what the future holds for these courageous Kiwis. 

185 people lost their lives in 24 dramatic seconds at 12.51pm on

Emptiness and silence all around

22nd February 2011, many hundreds made homeless, businesses closed and ruined in an instant of time, a city still in mourning, many buildings just empty, quiet as if expecting another battering. It was erie yet somehow tranquil as we walked around, I have never in my life experienced the almost aftermath of a major disaster; was this the feeling that one has at the NY twin towers or in the London Blitz? Goodness knows what Hiroshima must have felt like - my mind was alive with different feelings and emotions.

The Cardboard Cathedral

We eventually come across the 'cardboard Cathedral' a Japanese design erected out of cardboard, local wood and steel, which looked spectacular amongst the surrounding greyness and emptiness. We were at a traffic light crossroads and on its four corners stood the testament of past, present and future with one panoramic turn of the head. I look in on direction and I see a derelict building site with a small memorial garden and some information signs. This was the site of the former tower block that housed the Christchurch Television Centre where 115 persons working in the building at the time all perished. I am told that the only survivor was the receptionist. This was particularly distressing to me as I used to work in a television centre and to be honest with you I shed a tear and prayed for their memories and loved ones.

The White Chair grass area

I walk to another corner and I see something which will stay in my mind and heart for ever. There is a grass area with 185 white chairs in rows like pews. I read the inscription on the notice board: -

                

             " 181 empty chairs painted white twice in remembrance.

                       181 square metres of grass for new growth.

            This whole area is only temporary like our stay on earth"          

I again was filled with emotion and just needed to get away, to flee. I was being selfish, I wanted to remember my four weeks in this wonderful country with happiness. I wanted to remember the mountains, the lakes, the sheep, the fiords, that wonderful moment at the tip of North Island where the spirit of the Maori passed from land towards their homelands and where I felt so much at peace after the hectic pace and stress of life over recent years. All I was feeling however was sadness and despair. The empty buildings all around awaiting decisions of payouts and / or whether to stay up or pull down just added to the sense of something surreal, it was a hollywood movie set yet it was real, in your face and haunting.   

Inside the 'pop up' cathedral

I returned to go inside the 'pop up' Cathedral and walked around its polished concrete floor with waves of cardboard tubes catching the eye towards the cross and the alter and then I felt it!  A feeling of hope arising - yes hope that our world, our lives are temporary but that does not mean you cannot live it, whatever it throws at you one must struggle on, for without hope you have an emptiness leading to despair. I prayed again for loved ones, friends and family and walked out with a new feeling, a purposeful stride and went in search of evidence of this new beginning for those brave city workers and residents.

Shipping container shopping

I was led almost by a hand on my shoulder a few hundred yards straight to a city centre shopping complex where many shops had collapsed and only a few yards from where a bus had been passing and falling debris had killed four shoppers. Yet there it was, the evidence of hope out of adversity - old shipping containers transposed like magic into shops - all stacked at different angles, painted and bright, alive, bustling with life, vibrant energy and smiles returning. 

We had the future, a remembrance of the past for sure but it proved that hope was here, working and I laughed aloud to some strange looks! Indeed life does go on.  I had written something down earlier when visiting the white chairs and grass area. This was written on a faded piece of paper and pinned on a board by perhaps a family member of one of the victims of the tragedy. (I quote) :-

"If you haven't already, you will lose someone you can't live without, and your heart will be badly broken, and you never get over the loss of a deeply loved person. BUT this is good news. The person lives forever, in your broken heart that doesn't seal back up. And you come through, and you learn to dance with the banged up heart. You dance to the absurdities of life; you dance to the minuet of old friendships"  (end quote)…

A wonderful poignant piece from the heart from a person simply known as 'anon'- We have all experienced this depth of grief but I do know from personal experience that time does heal the soul but maybe not the heart. Any person who cares about others in their life cannot help but be overcome by varying emotions, I hope that I am that kind of human person so it was pretty obvious I was going to be upset.  

The Botanical gardens and museum

We walked towards the Botanical gardens and Museum only a couple of hundred yards from the Cathedral and more evidence that miracles do happen. Although the whole area and buildings rattled and many priceless articles and artefacts were damaged beyond repair, the grounds and Museum were open for business and what a joy to find the river had punts reminiscent of Oxford or Cambridge taking visitors on short trips through the Gardens.

The river walk towards the Museum

The Millenium 'chalice'

I was also amazed to see that one of the most recent modern landmarks in the city had been left unscathed although only metres from the destroyed Cathedral. The 18m high metal sculpture - 'chalice' designed to commemorate the new Millennium was standing proud in defiance  - a sure sign that life does and will go on - I was feeling so much more positive now.

The view toward the river estuary

We made the short trip to the south east of the city to our evening B&B in Mt Pleasant - an amazing house on several levels built on the hill overlooking the city with views of the shore line of the city's river estuaries, which incidentally had tilted in the earthquake, causing lots of flooding in the area.

Our host Catherine was so lovely and understood our emotions entirely. She spent a long time telling us amazing stories of courage and how everybody rallied around to give help and support to a battered city. Their own house had been damaged and bridges in the locality had collapsed and sewage and oozy silt rising out of drains and cracks in the road, yet thy coped.

Christchurch rebuild project update

I particularly was amused about the 'farmy army' - The rural heartland from miles around rushed to the city to hand out fresh produce but also brought shovels to stay and help in the immediate clean up process - one nation, one family. The cost of the rebuilding project is £30 billion and rising fast and according to statistics published recently Christchurch is already one of our world's largest natural disasters in respect of repairs and rebuild.  

It was inspiring to hear her talk and the city's 20 year future plan promises to be very innovative with open spaces, walkways, cycle paths along the River Avon and a new low rise city centre. 

I have no doubt at all that this beautiful resilient city will recover and I will leave NZ tomorrow with positive vibes and many fantastic memories.

In Blog 31, I will write a short reflection of our four weeks in NZ and outline the plans for future blogs on our world adventure.

DKT