Rosie and The Operator are off to Christchurch….well, we actually have been and gone and done it..in May this year. Rosie has been a little slack in her reporting. Seeing she is on a roll…..
The day was crisp and blue and decidedly autumnal. The Operator had just finished a 12 hour nightshift and drove us straight to New Plymouth airport for a direct flight and a long weekend.
Is it wrong after working a 12 hour shift to have a beer at 8.00am? Who cares we are on holiday….The flight was clear and beautiful, New Plymouth stretched out below like a green and blue canvas, it made me so proud to live in this breath-taking country. The Operator thought he could get abit of shut eye on the trip…until he started sawing wood super loudly and dribbling while catching flies….Rosie gave him the covert elbow to rouse him half a dozen times….The Operator didn’t get much kip.
The flight was faultless and here we were, we caught a shuttle bus to The Bellano Motel…formally The Bellagio, until Vegas got a whiff of it and made them change their name.
The Motel is on Bealy Ave…about as close to town as you can get in Christchurch at the moment. It had newly reopened and everything was sparkling. The owner said the motel had sunk after the second quake, everything had to be realigned and new pipes and foundations put in. He even went as far to give us the geological update of the land the motel was built on. Rosie was a little puzzled…he answered, everybody in Christchurch knows the geological make up of their properties now.
Our room was lovely and we had a nice balcony where we would certainly enjoy a bottle of wine later…but it was early morning still and we headed straight up the road to check out town.
For us non Christchurchers there is a sense of ghoulish morbid curiosity as to the plight of locals here, at this stage we talk freely about being gutted if we came all this way and didn’t experience a small earthquake…Ours eyes are peeled for signs of damage and non seem to be apparent yet.
Walking towards the CBD you start to see the fenced off buildings, empty and abandoned with weeds starting to poke up through broken paving. Coloured CERA notices are taped to dusty windows and doors, markers of buildings checked out and deemed unfit to enter in the aftermath. Montreal Street shows the first gaps in the flow – buildings are gone and weedy empty sections stand behind hurricane fencing..
The Jubilee Tower built in 1851 to honour Queen Victoria’s Diamond Commemorations still stands – albeit with a crooked top and fencing allowing no admittance. It is starting to get a little more sobering the closer we get to town.
Then we get to Cranmer Square and the beauty of the green space is overwhelming, ancient trees line the perimeter and they drop their golden leaves which form drifts at their bases, even though nature caused the tragedy here….the tragedy doesn’t present its self in nature. The seasonal change carries on in all its full glory and beauty.
We skirted the CBD and headed for The Botanic Gardens Tourist Centre to get some information on where to go and what to see. It was a glorious day and people were out in force enjoying the weakly shining sun, scores of people were having picnics on blankets and every park bench was full. The gardens looked magnificent, Sefton Moorhouse, advocate in the 1850s for the building of the Lyttleton tunnel and railway sits on his plinth overlooking a crumpled Arts College.
From behind the hurricane fencing it is all go, swarms of high visibility vests move to and fro rebuilding what has fallen. The tall spires of the College, like hats sit on the ground waiting to be put back on high.
Armed with a newly acquired map of the CBD marked with red zone areas which allow no access we march on…
We crossed the Avon River, this area is all zoned pedestrian only and it was so quiet and picturesque with no cars.
We are heading for the ReStart Mall, the Bridge of Remembrance is closed off so we skirted it and out of the silence we could hear music. People were walking towards it, follow the crowds.
From the wasteland of empty cordoned off sites virtually pops up the new ReStart mall. All the shops are made ingeniously from stacked shipping containers. In true kiwi spirit the phoenix has risen from the ashes and retail claws back. In a compact city block is this orderly mall of shops. High end designer clothing mingles with pop up stalls, buskers and food caravans. It is a high energy place that breaks the gloom you feel of the devastation.
This container was a deli…it was colourful and cram packed full of goods you buy in the UK…brown sauce, Irn Bru, Walkers Crisps…you name it it was there. Rosie thought that it was a little odd and very speciality for the area…until the lunchtime work whistle blew somewhere and the little shop was full of hard hatted high vis wearing builders buying pies and chips and drinks…..all with Scottish and English accents. They knew where to get a taste of home…very clever. A jazz band was playing giving a good vibe and even though there may not have been a lot of shopping variety it is definitely a unique place to visit and is the only place in the CBD to get a coffee, beer or lunch.
Fairfax Newspaper Reports -Terry Chung is hoping to bring a little bit of happiness to the people of Christchurch with 1000 smiles. Chung began the project Smile for Christchurch after he saw many sad faces in the city post-earthquakes.
“I decided to collect smiles for the city. I hope it can bring some happiness.”
Since March last year, Chung has collected more than 700 smile photographs from more than 14 cities around the country. In New Zealand on a working holiday visa, Chung collects the smiles while busking with his ukulele when he is not at work. (Nice Story Eh, makes you want to smile)
On the edge of the ReStart Mall it starts to grow quiet again, the crowds thin out and a ghost town emerges. These shops are red stickered, to be demolished. They have been boarded up since the second quake the shop windows are dusty.
Peep inside and everything is like a snapshot in time, the table tops are dusty in Starbucks, the seats are knocked askew and there is crockery on the floor. You know the exact time everyone ran out…and no one has been back since.
We are heading for Cathedral Square, the CBD is quiet, unnaturally so, there are no sounds of traffic, everyone is on foot, reverent and quiet. Orange, brown and yellow leaves rustle through the streets, skittering across the pavement, gathering in drifts in abandoned doorways. Rosie and The Operator walk past black, dusty windows full of dusty furniture from shops that will never open again. Pigeons coo from exposed rafters in roofs and sit atop hanging broken signs. It is a snapshot from a post apocalyptic nightmare, the handful of people like us that wander from site to site, the last survivors…it sends a shiver up your spine and puts a tear in your eye.
Oh Rosie you might say, play that violin abit louder…you are only taking photos of the worst stuff…to be brutally honest…there is nothing else to take photos of, other than blocks of emptiness where buildings have already been cleared. This building was built in 1851 and housed Shands Emporium…it is on Hereford Street and that is pretty much all that is left on this inner city block of the street, the wasteland behind has already been cleared of what was once there.
Rosie and The Operator get to a wire fence…is this Cathedral Square? We are dis orientated, we have never been here before pre quake and are not sure….
We follow the hurricane fence to the other side and gaze upon the broken symbol of Christchurch. While standing there Rosie googled a picture of the cathedral in her heyday..The spire is completely gone, and, in the huge hole in the front where the enormous rose window was, building paper flaps and birds fly in and out. The strong backbone of the ribbed wooden interior is exposed to the elements and nesting birds..
We follow the fencing back around again, transfixed by the devastation, only speaking in whispers as reflects the sombre feeling. Rosies heart hurts, she started the day so flippant and had no idea what these people of this city of have really been through, what they are still going through. Imagine waking up and finding the main shopping streets and heart of your town …gone.
Standing back on the banks of the beautiful, calm, Avon, looking towards the destroyed square, feeling the sun on your face and looking up at the blue sky. Rosie wishes she could have seen Christchurch in its true glory. Walking the compact streets and seeing the squares, Rosie truly believes this would have been the most beautiful city in New Zealand. There is a lot to rebuild, but this city is one day soon going to be just as remarkable! The silence of the day is punctuated here with jackhammers…the re build is happening.
Christchurch is quirky. On the edge of the hurricane fencing a green line appears….people are following it….a wriggly green line with flowers….it promises something……
We come to a giant green lounge suite…..it overlooks nothing in particular other than an empty site….we follow the line.
Past colourful, surreal ingenuity in preserving a historic façade.
Then, you pop out of the grey once again and the wriggly line has lead you to another realm in Wonderland, the newly opened and perfectly pastel New Regent Street. A small street 100 metres long filled with colourful Spanish Mission style shops. a tiled pedestrian area runs down the middle and half a dozen shops are open…this really did just re open two days prior – the people will come!
Just ignore what looks like a bombed parking building in the background…that office block will come down and be rebuilt.
We had a lovely coffee in Shop Eight called Rekindle….they also make city scape’s and furniture from recycled wood from the disaster, they are beautiful.
The CBD is slowly waking up, pockets are being rejuvenated and the outlook from people that live there is positive. Posters and signs of love and prayers from all over our country are attached to the miles of fencing that surround devastation…it will come back, it will be better than before, that is the Kiwi way, we don’t give in. Kia Kaha Christchurch.
Tomorrow Rosie and The Operator head out to Lyttleton and check out the suburbs.
