Christchurch – Life Goes On

Cantabrians are a resilient lot. They have been knocked down many times over the last two years and most have got back up with their humour intact. They have a commitment to restoring the place to some sort of normality. Witness this badly damaged building

and the displayed intention to save the place.

The empty spaces are being converted into makeshift community resources.

Containers have found new uses. This is the Container Mall in central Christchurch 

and the Porthole pub in Lyttleton.

Here I am having a drink inside.

One of our favourite Christchurch institutions is the Canterbury Cheesemonger. Their premises were wrecked by the first earthquake but the business has resurfaced and continues to stock high quality local and imported wares. We bought Wensleydale and Stilton.

 

And finally, people keep having babies. Our friend Denise became a granny on Monday when Eva Grace was born. Our other good Christchurch friend, Janie, has been a grandmother since February. Her daughter Polly had a son. We visited them while we were down south. 

 

Christchurch Part One

We were down in Christchurch last weekend. It was a sobering experience travelling through the worst affected suburbs. This post will present some views of these areas. A subsequent post will explore some more positive aspects to come from the weekend.

First up we visited Sumner. This is a seaside area that suffered severely from collapse of the cliff side.

That is a school at the base of the cliff. They have erected walls of shipping containers filled with concrete to keep rock falls off the roads and still inhabited buildings.

Containers are everywhere. People displaced from their homes were able to store all their belongings in them. A growth industry is decorating your container. Normally murals are done on canvas or vinyl and attached to the outside but this one has a knitted blanket!

Bollards are also developing a life of their own.

Here are two severely munted cliff top houses in Sumner.

The eastern suburbs were some of the worst affected. This is in North New Brighton where the Avon river is now higher than the roads that run alongside. Stop banks have been erected to give some protection but the majority of properties will be abandoned.

Probably the most poignant memorial is 185 Chairs. Erected on the site of the Oxford Terrace Baptist which collapsed in the February 2011 earthquake.

The centre of Christchurch is unrecognisable. Empty spaces with buildings being “deconstructed” (the current euphemism for demolished) dominate the scene.

 

The Cathedral is still out of bounds. The current plan is to demolish it, but there is a movement to restore it.

There are reminders of those awful days when buildings were searched, room by room, by Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) for survivors.

 Demolished buildings leave ghostly reminders of their former presence. 

At least parking is cheap.

Family News

I’ve decided to go with quality, not quantity. With not much new or exciting happening I haven’t felt the need to blog on the normal mundane tasks of existence. Although they can be quite fun in their own way. Recently just keeping warm has been an enjoyable achievement in its own right. We had an early cold snap, followed by a couple of weeks of wet, windy weather. Today is bright and sunny – tomorrow, could be a lot worse.

The children are spreading to the four corners of the circular globe (© Spike Milligan). Jenny is ensconced in London, working crazy hours as a paralegal at Linklaters. She is having flat dramas, exacerbated by the pending Olympics, but as I told her she will have great stories she can dine out on for years to come.

Sam and Bex are about to head off overseas for a couple of years. First stop Australia, then Asia, then Europe is the current plan. They have let their house out, resigned their jobs so there is no going back now.

Noreen and I will be going down to Christchurch next week. I hope to have some photos of the state of the city. From what I can gather most of the central city has been demolished but rebuilding has yet to get under way. It will soon be two years since the first earthquake.

I’ll leave you with one picture – Sam, Bex and Noreen at a wedding of an old work colleague of mine. Sam was good friends with her son. It was a good opportunity to catch up with old friends and acquaintances.