Blogs from Christchurch, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 19

Christchurch is a very English city with spires, private schools and punting on the tranquil river. It is also a city which was nearly destroyed in a series of horrific earthquakes. I had no idea the quakes were so bad. The first in Sept 2010 caused significant damage and the second in Feb 2011 further damaged imany unstable buildings and killed 185. Most died in the Canterbury Television Building which completely collapsed. The effected area of the city is now sealed off - approximately 0.7km sq. I took a tour bus through the area wondering how appropriate it is to be a tourist in such a space. It is like a city after a terrorist attack or a war. Shops, churches, pubs, restaurants, the cathedral, bus stations, tram stations all closed. Some offices still have furniture ... read more

Arriving into what was the centre of christchurch is quite a strange experience. When we stayed before picking up the van we never ventured past the hostel, and that was out to the north of the centre. When we got off the bus in what was previously just outside the city centre,the damage was everywhere. There is a red zone in the centre of the city where all the buildings have to come down. So if businesses were not directly destroyed by the quakes, they were closed down by being inside the red zone. We were staying in a motel, only 1 street outside the red zone to the east of the city, and around us was mostly knocked down buildings. The bar and restaurant culture of the city has basically moved out in all directions, ... read more

After a turbulent flight to New Zealand we arrived in Christchurch early in the morning. We hung around the airport for a couple of hours until the Spaceship office opened and we could collect our new camper, named The Hoff, much to our amusement. We spent our first day briefly seeing the destruction of the earthquake in 2011 before finding a Pac and Save (thank you Sarah!) and then heading to Woodend beach where we caught up on some much needed sleep as well as listening to some folky music courtesy of the mini festival that was happening on site! Our next stop was Banks Peninsular; the drive to our camp site at Okains Bay was via the magnificent climb up Summit road, formed by two giant volcanic eruptions eight million years ago. We looked down ... read more

Well our last night in Sydney was at the Opera House watching Madame Butterfly and what an evening it was. It is my favorite opera and in Sydney Opera House, you cannot get to beat that - mind you I can never see Madame Butterfly again now can I. I still have a present outstanding for Covent Garden and I always said when that Madame Butterfly came to Covent Garden I will see it there, so I am going to have to think of another one I would like to see there maybe Lucia di Lammermoor (Maria Callas made famous - well that is what I think anyway to all you opera aficionados out there, ha ha). We were sorry to leave our little studio apartment in Darlinghurst, Sydney. Before arriving in Oz I must admit ... read more

After arriving at Foley Towers BBH (pictures of John Cleese everywhere) I collapsed into my room with 2 irish guys over for the rebuild and had been in Christchurch for about 18 months! Not surprisingly they were sick of the place. Was awake all night due to jetlag and the irish snoring and had a hellish time trying to confirm my place on a tour the next day. In the morning I was picked up by the minibus and taken out to Mt Sunday (Edoras) and took about 200 photos while trying to keep my eyes open the whole time, even if you weren't a massive LOTR nerd this trip would have been well worth it, the scenery was absolutely stunning with the snow capped mountains and vast shallow valleys it looked like something straight out ... read more