Sunday in Christchurch

We started the day off with a Skype call to Jeff to wish him a Happy New Zealand Birthday - a day early for him though! Took off in the car to see some more Christchurch sights - our first being an area called the red zone. This used to be a populated area with up to 10,000 houses, which is now has just grass and trees. The houses were hit hard by the earthquakes, condemned and eventually taken down as they were alongside the Avon River, and the earth beneath them suffered liquification. Many people lost their homes and it is amazing to see the open space and roads where sub divisions used to be. From there, we drove out to a seaside town called New Brighton. Today was a wet, windy, drizzly day and even more so at New Brighton where the ocean was angry! I’m sure on a sunny day, this would be a gorgeous beach!

When my family lived in England, the Hamilton family who lived next door to us, had emigrated to Christchurch back in 1963. I decided to look them up, and it turned out their home was only about 15 minutes from New Brighton, so off we went for a visit!! We found the house and amazingly, Enid, the Mom, remembered us from Kendal Drive. Her youngest son (of 4 boys) Rory was over to see her, so we had a really nice time catching up on all the people from the old neighbourhood, as well as what our families are doing know. Enid lives in a lovely retirement complex, so the four of us went over to the clubhouse for lunch and more chatting! It was so nice to catch up, although sad to find out her oldest son Colin, who was my age and my best friend back then, had passed away 2 years ago from cancer - and interestingly was living in Edmonton at the time. Small world! We said our farewells, then Dave and I headed back to our place then off again to Hagley Park, where we walked through the lovely gardens, stopped at the architecturally beautiful Christ college boys school (looks a bit like Hogwarts), and took a walk through the museum, which in parts is very similar to the BC Provincial Museum in Victoria! Went off for a bite to eat,and are now packing up to get ready for our road trip to Westport tomorrow, with stops along the way!Read more