NOTE:
This blog is divided into 10 separate sections as there are far too many photos to put on one post
Christchurch
We arrived in Christchurch around 6pm and drove into the city as our hotel was located in what was (& is) the "Red Zone". The "Red Zone" was the cordoned off area of Christchurch that occurred as the result of the devastating earthquake in Feb 2011. What awaited us, we were not prepared for.
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| NO ENTRY sign at the Cathedral in the Red Zone |
The volume of destruction, demolition and empty, boarded up buildings is impossible to describe the expanse of it. Whole city blocks have been flattened and cleared. In other places a single boarded up or fenced off building may be standing, while all around it is flat. Building that STILL have their merchandise in their shopfront windows. It really shook us.
We had been there in 2007 (see a much earlier blog) and it was really disturbing at the devastation that had been. We were looking forward to a pub that we had been too, but that was all boarded up.
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View from our hotel window
You can see the city blocks are flattened |
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360 view near the container shopping plaza
(note the building by itself on left) |
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Close up of the building mentioned above
You can see in the shop windows the merchandise still there. |
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| Flooded underground carpark of a building |
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| The wreckers go about their task |
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| Saving a historical building front whilst rebuilding the rest of the building |
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| The clock tower boarded up |
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| The iSite building on the Cathedral Plaza |
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| Cathedral Plaza looking towards the iSite building |
To be frank, it initially felt like walking through a near abandoned city.
HOWEVER, Christchurch is far from that. The more we walked around the more we saw the strength of people in rebuilding, make best of, brightening up their city.
All positive thinking.
There were things like a single putt-putt hole on a site, and then another a street or so over. Bright murals, various artistic sculptures.
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| One of the many fun areas & sculptures scattered around that brighten up the city |
Amongst this is a place called the "Shipping Container Shopping Centre" or similar. Near the centre is a plaza that has been made up of shipping containers. Again, how positive. There were coffee, clothing, book shops to mention a few. Very well executed in the design and layout of it. Great use of colour and space. It is something that I hope they keep once the city is rebuilt as it is unique and a symbol of the people not giving up.
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The "Shipping Container Plaza"
(the red building is a 2 storey coffee shop complete with an upper floor open dining area) |
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| Down one of the arcades |
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| Inside the plaza looking back towards the 2 storey coffee shop |
Christchurch's Catholic Cathedral
To see the damage that had occurred to it was frightening. We went through this beautiful cathedral (including walking up the bell tower) back in 2007. I still cannot find words to describe how I felt then or even how I feel now.
Best let the pictures say. Unfortunately, (and it saddens me deeply to say this) I cannot see how this building can be saved as it is. There is far to much structural damage. At the moment it future is in the courts.
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| Looking down the plaza to what was the front of the cathedral |
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| The brightly painted safety boarding around the cathedral |
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| An enormous supporting structure taking the weight of the roof |
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| This is all that remains of the towering bell tower |
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| Even the angel has been tied back to the main structure to stop it from falling off |
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You can see how much the building has moved and cracked
(this is the corner of seen in the right side of the previous photo) |
Despite all of the devastation, there is a positive feeling in Christchurch. A near blank canvas to work on, to create a new city. It will take a long time and it will be interesting to see what direction it takes.
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