Welcome to April, Happy Easter and merry April fools day

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The storm continues through the night and I am awoken at several points by thunder. It is still raining heavily when I get up to skype the Baker family, at their Easter Sunday gathering – lovely to talk to you all, and a little envious I can’t indulge in a slice of your chocolate cake Catherine! However, after breakfast the rain stops, and the sun begins to shine. For a change I decide to run one of the tracks, so I run the Arthurs Pass walking track to access the start of the Bealley River Valley track, along the river – a nice fairly flat route, only having to walk a few times to climb up, after this I then run the short distance to the start of the Temple Basin Ski field track (the walk I completed yesterday) and wow what a difference a bit of sunshine makes – I can now see waterfalls which were clouded in fog yesterday! I then run the lovely track all the way back to near the village, a quick beeline up the 100 or so steps to access the devils punchbowl to admire the stunning waterfall and after that, and a mere 2 hours after I started arrive back at the hostel! After a nice shower and packing up my stuff I demolished some pasta and then headed out to the café across the road to sit and relax and enjoy a fab ice cream until it was time to head to the train station to complete the transalpine journey to Christchurch.

This section of the train, from Arthurs Pass to Christchurch was stunning and I spent the majority of the time in the open air carriage, admiring the view of the mountains, turning into braded rivers, and then the Canterbury plains, all with the wind blowing through my hair!

The train arrived into Christchurch around 6pm, and I walked the 20 minutes to my hostel – the old city jail. The hostel was fabulous; all modernised but still looking and which gave it a slight feeling still of a jail! With my bus leaving at 7am the next morning I have next to no time to see the city, so I dropped my bags and headed straight into the centre, luckily only a 20min walk away. I wonder into the centre and start to get confronted by the odd building or bridge which look ok but are sealed off with red tape. When I reach the central area, now known as the ‘red zone’, the whole area is fenced off, with some shops looking like they have been frozen in time – window displays still intact, shops full of items but yet some buildings reduced twisted piles of metal and rubble all around, and all the streets are lined with jcb’s, trucks and other building machinery. I wonder the unaffected streets until I reach the ‘container mall’ area. This is the area which has been redeveloped to an extent. With fairly high end shops relocating their shops and stock to brightly coloured shipping containers, and placed in a pedestrianized area – full of similar containers and cafes, lined with quirky seating, lots of flower beds using recycled materials, and boards with the proposed re-development plans.

It’s a stark contrast, a destructed city in tatters on one corner, then an array of modern, artistic brightly coloured containers on the next. I feel it is almost this contrast, the close proximity of the two very different areas which gives the container mall area an overwhelming feeling of positive energy and hope. This area is a physical sign of the population of the city pulling together, as is often the case in times of crisis, helping each other to cope and survive the devastating effects of the earthquake. The form this area has taken, with bright colours, recycled materials in a very young modern and artistic way is dictating the style of the future development – and I believe it will be a fantastic city when it is completed.

I wander home with the sun setting, past the arts centre, museum, through the botanical gardens and large park area to the hostel. I have a lovely relaxed evening reading and chatting to people in the hostel and my dorm before bed.

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