Christchurch, NZ

Arriving in Christchurch after our rainy train ride we discovered a very lovely city where we spent a week and thoroughly enjoyed our time there. We stayed in a lovely bungalow just outside the city center...

Christchurch is very flat so we enjoyed our walks everyday exploring the city and found it to be very clean, green and English. Named after the cathedral Christ Church at Oxford University it is easy to see the English influences everywhere. The river running through the city is called the Avon River and looks like this...

It runs through the center of the city and certainly is one of its’ defining features, you can punt or kayak the river as well...

Along the river banks are huge weeping willows with an interesting history...

I thought this was a neat fact...

There are also green spaces everywhere with people enjoying them...

A lovely spot for a picnic...

Colorful flower beds everywhere as well...

And then there are the rose gardens...

Some interesting fountains...

Given the city’s history there are lots of statutes around including James Cook, the English explorer who sighted New Zealand in 1769 and subsequently mapped the region.

And then there is Queen Victoria and the Clock Tower which was built to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee and is still standing...

We found Christchurch to be a very vibrant city with lots of activity, there were street performers everywhere...

Farmers markets...

These were delicious and we are going to try them at home...



Lots of festivals in the parks, this one with Maori performers  celebrating Waitangi Day when in 1840, representatives of the British Crown and over 500 Maori chiefs signed what is New Zealand’s founding document. 

It was held in Victoria Square, ( we can see her backside) complete with lots of food trucks which are also seen all over the city...

 

I almost forgot the noodle festival...

We only did one day trip and that was to a town about an hour or so away called Hamner Springs which is known for its’ hot springs as well as hiking and walking trails. The scenery as usual was stunning...

Views from the top of Conical Hill down to the town and beyond...





Us at the top, it was a steep climb...

Christchurch is located on an active seismic fault line and is very used to seismic activity, however in 2010 and 2011 they sustained two severe earthquakes. The first one did lots of damage but no lost of life, but the second one in February, 2011 caused massive damage and 185 people lost their lives with over 7000 people injured. As well 16000 homes were deemed unsuitable and needed to be demolished. 

We visited Quake City, a museum dedicated to these events and it did a great job of explaining the geology and history. There is also a Maori legend which explains the earthquakes...

A display showing some of the damage and one of the many teams who came from around the world to help with the rescue efforts.

The tremors were so severe they even made straight train tracks curve...

All over the city there are still signs of devastation and recovery with new buildings rising besides damaged ones...

Christchurch Cathedral, a landmark in the centre of the city  sustained severe damage with no restoration in sight...

The Arts Center is one of the most significant buildings in the city covering a full block with Gothic Revival architecture and it too suffered a lot of structural damage.  The cost of restoration will be over 300 million with some already completed and other work ongoing...

Some walls are still supported...

One of the inner courtyards and a cafe...



As always people are ingenious so a Japanese architect designed a Transitional Cathedral made of cardboard tubes, timber and steel. It sits on one of the vacant lots where buildings stood before the quake...

Not far in another vacant field is the art installation of Memorial Chairs, one for each victim that died in the earthquake, it was a very somber experience...

The artist statement....

There is also a large memorial wall near the river with the names of all the victims, it is a very peaceful place...

People leave reminders of their lost ones...

As we walked around the city especially in the center there were many signs of recovery and renewal with lots of new buildings, streets, markets...

The old and the new...

Great food halls...

The historic tram which runs through the city..

Another nice feature of any city are pedestrian only streets...

And for me I think public street art is always so interesting...

Huge murals...

Loved this piece...

And finally here are the arches leading the way to central city, they were built in the Commons which was a gathering place for people after the earthquake when most of the infrastructure was destroyed. I think they are lovely...

Christchurch is one of the nicest cities we have visited and a week here was not enough to enjoy all it has to offer, definitely a must stop in New Zealand. 

We are now on to our last stop being the town of Queenstown in the southwest of the country.