Christchurch

For our anniversary we decided to spoil ourselves and book into a motel in Christchurch for 4 days. Due to a booking error in our favour (sounds like Monopoly doesn't it) we ended up with a one bed room suite instead of a studio at no extra cost. Last time we were here we only had 12 hours so we wanted to spend more time and appreciate this lovely but unlucky city. 

Spring has really sprung here the tulips, daffs, azalea, camellias, sweat williams etc etc were all in full bloom, see below. The botanical garden was beautiful. 

The city is still demolishing its earthquake damaged buildings and they reckon it will be up to 10 years before all the devastated buildings are replaced. They are trying to save many of the historic buildings and we have seen some renovation improvements since we were last here in February. After speaking with locals it seems that the insurance companies want to repair and not replace. However, they are active in their positive approach with many modern sculptures and art work filling empty sites. They had a event stadium made from shipping pallets, which is now used for such things as markets and picnics (see the arches images at the bottom of this post, it's now known as the Commons). 

The 150 year old cathedral was badly damaged in the 2010 earthquake and then suffered more damage in 2011 quake and has now lost the bell tower. The church and the heratige society are in heated debate as to repair or demolish and replace. The church want to replace and the heritage society want to repair. So no work has started yet, 4 years later! In the interim they have spent 7 million dollars on building the transitional cathedral better known as the Cardboard cathedral. $2.3 million just on making the foundations safe in case an earthquake of that magnitude happens again. Incidentally New Zealand has around 10,000 earthquakes a year only most are so deep down that they are barely felt. 

Original cathedral and sculpture in Cathedral square, city centre Christchurch. The multi storey buildings you can see in the background are all earmarked for demolition

Cardboard Cathdral

My tour guide (Sarah) organised a full day of sightseeing and historical facts starting at 10am, we finally made it back to the hotel at around 8pm. It was a lovely day with bright sunshine, people punting down the River Avon and picnicking in Hagley Park. We saw all there was to see from Restart the container mall to monuments for the NZ suffragettes and Antony Gormley's sculpture 'Stay' (he's the British artist that produced the Angel of the North and Liverpools Standing Men on the beachs around Crosby. 

The clock tower below has withstood all the earth could throw at it since 1860. However it has been relocated so that streets could be realigned following earthquakes in the previous century. The clock and bell were all built in England and shipped to NZ, the bell is currently being renovated. 

The arches at the Commons