Christchurch

We’re in New Zealand! (And have been for 5 days but this has been coupled with no internet and no charger so apologies for the absence!)

So we said our sad goodbyes to Bro’s family in Melbourne after a frankly awesome few weeks.

After a flawless journey (omitting the part where we spent the three-hour plane ride having our chairs kicked continuously by a couple of overactive and falsetto two-year old twins (Mum, I have renewed respect!) in which my coping strategy was to imagine I was sat in one of those vibrating chairs they have in Sarah Hodge which was surprisingly successful) we arrived in the very sunny Christchurch, congratulating ourselves on deciding to travel rather than procreate.

Having readily befriended 3 Kiwis (a little old lady and two very helpful schoolboys) on the bus, we arrived at our Air BnB by late afternoon, having already made up our minds that Kiwis are simply lovely. It’s very surreal arriving somewhere that you’ve always regarded as being in the far corner of the world in less time than it would take you to get from London to Newcastle. 

We arrived early evening so headed off into town to find some food, and have a look around. I don’t think either of us were quite prepared for post-earthquake Christchurch. We’d been told the centre of town had been pretty much flattened, but seriously it has been totally flattened. 

A friend of our hosts kindly offered us a lift into the centre as he was heading that way, and I’d fleetingly had the thought in the car that we must be passing through some out-of-town regeneration project, when he announced that we were there. He dropped us off right next to the Cathedral which Claire had told me was (and Bro remembered it to be) a beautiful old building in the middle of a handsome square. It is now a shell of rubble, half propped up by metal scaffolds, and resembling something you see on the news from a warzone (apologies, photos are only on my phone which has been dead for a few days). We found it quite surprising that this icon of the city was still left in such a state of disrepair, when clearly it represents the heart of the city. But talking to locals, it turns out there is a huge conflict between the people of Christchurch who largely want to try to restore what is still there to its original glory, and the Government, who want to demolish it and rebuild it. So despite it being 4 years after the earthquake, it still stands at stalemate and consequently in ruin.

Fairly shocked, and appropriately humbled, we spent the next couple of hours wandering the streets of the centre just observing, open-mouthed. I was observing with fresh eyes, but Bro had been there 10 years before so was perhaps even more shocked at the change. It’s now like a series of building sites and carparks, jumbled together with piles of rubble and eerily boarded up buildings.

The good news is that the suburbs are far less affected so the city is still thriving despite the crater in its centre, and you can already see something new and exciting emerging from the ruins of this old town. I always mock Brodie for using this word, but walking around there’s a weird kind of juxtaposition between the devastating ruins of buildings, nestled between super smart new buildings with pristine driveways and elegant shop-fronts. There are also an eclectic handful of bars and eateries that have started cropping up-some in newbuilds, but most of them making use of buildings that are still usable which gives them a quirky appeal and a lot of character.

Some beautiful graffiti has cropped up here and there, a lot of which reminded me of parts of Bristol, and people have made use of some spaces for pop-up shops and communal grounds which reminded me of some of the quirky parts of London that I love. Apparently they’ve also got big plans for the centre, and building work has already started, so I’m excited about what it will become, and perhaps in 10 years we’ll go back and I’m sure we’ll see a very different Christchurch.