Christchurch, New Zealand

Today we walked, & walked around the centre of Christchurch. It became obvious that Feb 22, 2011 changed this city forever. That was the day when a devastating earthquake hit the Canterbury region hard, killing 185 and wounding 1500-2000 more. Many buildings, that were weakened by an earthquake the year before, still lay in ruins, including the CTV building where 115 bodies were recovered. The quake occurred at lunch time so many of the casualties were people on buses, & on footpaths, crushed by crumbling buildings. Rescue efforts were severely hampered by collapsed bridges & flooding caused by a tsunami after the quake. Right across from where the CTV building stood they’ve set up 185 chairs in 185 square metres to commemorate those that were killed. They’ve also set up a white wall & a bridge of remembrance along the Avon River. Christchurch Cathedral was damaged badly & much of it remains standing. The Anglican Church of Australia decided to demolish & rebuild but “friends of the church” wanted it to be salvaged, so after several court cases what’s left of the structure remains standing & cordoned off. Stabilization efforts have begun. In the meantime the Anglican Church built the Cardboard cathedral several blocks away. The inside is built partially of rolled up tubes of cardboard. The Japanese architect designed the building for free to honour the 12 Japanese students who died in the Foreign Language school housed in the CTV building. The city centre is slowly rebuilding but many condemned structures remain, even after 9 years. A tram runs through the centre of the city and many electric scooters & bikes buzz around with locals & tourists. Restaurants & hotels are slowly returning. We visited Cathedral square & the Botanic Gardens. Christchurch is known as Garden City. We saw some very beautiful street art as we walked around too. We almost reached 20000 steps today!Read more