Our cottage is a 15-minute walk from the Central Business District in Christchurch. The massive earthquake which struck the city occurred in 2011 and the extent of the damage is still quite evident. Evidently, the CBD and historic city center was so damaged the entire area was blocked from access and guarded by the military for over two years (!) out of concern for aftershocks and crumbling structures. Very large sections of the downtown remain fenced off or strewn with rubble. Most disquieting are the number of residences still boarded up & fenced off. In many, objects of everyday life can be seen through broken windows where they were left as the occupants fled their homes.
And yet, if you look past the damage, Christchurch remains a beautiful city with large parks (it was once known as the ‘Garden City, for good reason), the river Avon winding through the city, quality museums, interesting street art, and an emerging craft beer scene. The people are friendly, upbeat, and proud of where the reconstruction will take them. Neon lettering on the front of the Art Museum says it all – ‘Everything is Going to be Alright’.
Dick
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I get a couple of loads of laundry done early this morning while we are having breakfast and catching up on emails, etc. Today is a free day with nothing booked and several options on the list of possibilities. We want to explore the downtown area and see how the recovery efforts are coming. The central part of town suffered extensive damage from the earthquake and we’ve heard that progress has been slow.
Top on the list is to check out the towns namesake cathedral. It’s bad. Almost seven years since the quake, the council and the church have just now decided to restore the church. It was a difficult decision and originally the consensus was to demolish it. It will be a significant effort and a lot of money to get it back.
As we are walking, one thing that jumps out at you is the number of residential homes and apartments that are boarded up and abandoned. We’ve heard that some of it is the insurance companies dragging settlements out, but some people left and are not returning (the city has lost 2.5 percent of its population since the quake). The streets are a maze of construction work going on with closures and openings happening daily. Significant damage occurred to water and sewage infrastructure, so they had to rebuild that before they could rebuild the roads. I must say, all the roads look great. We wander on the promenade along the Avon river, a nice green space and gardens with a memorial wall built to commemorate the 185 people who lost their lives, very peaceful.
As we are walking we wind up talking with a person in an electric wheelchair. She had accidently run into a construction sign on the sidewalk. She laughed it off and said yes, there are still a lot of them, but not as much as before, they are making progress and she loves this city. Most of the locals seem to be very positive about the town.
One of the local shopping malls had to be demolished so they have built the container mall as a temporary solution. All the stores are in repurposed cargo containers, they have a lively food court as well, it’s actually kind of cool.
We head back towards the town center and stop at O.G.B. (Old Government Building), a bar with a cool vibe and outside seating. It’s Friday and the after-work crowd is in full force enjoying the start of the weekend so we join them.
Mary