Blogs from Christchurch, South Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 21

Geo: -43.5316, 172.637On September 4th 2010, a magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck Canterbury NZ, which caused significant damage to Christchurch and the central Canterbury region, but no direct fatalities. And then 6 months later, on February 22nd 2011, Christchurch was rocked again with a magnitude 6.3 earthquake that severely damaged New Zealand's second-largest city, killing 185 people (only New Zealand's stringent building codes limited the disaster)- an event almost unheard of in modern Western cities. In the first week after the Feb quake over 360 aftershocks were experienced, the largest measuring magnitude 5.9, occurring just under 2 hours after the main shock. The aftershocks continue to this day with the Christchurch area experiencing between 1 and 3 aftershocks per day (they're calling it an earthquake swarm)! And yet most people have heard little, if anything, abou... read more

Flew over last night from Perth, althought it seems like it was several days ago. A very tiring night with no sleep and arrived at Aucklkand at 2am our time (Perth time and 6am NZ time. the dawn was just breaking into an absolutely beautiful day with clear skies and lots of fog around the hills. However we were too tired to appreciate it as we had to go thru customs and quarantine and then re check thru domestic terminal to catch our flight to Christchurch an hour later. We had to carry our checked baggage to another section then WALK (stagger and puff!) almost a kilometer along a "green painted line" to the domestic terminal. This is outside along the road, at 3am we were glad it was fine. The flight down to Christchurch was ... read more

On our way to Christchurch we detoured to the Mount Cook National Park - Mount Cook is the highest moutain in NZ at 3,800 m. 50% of the time Mount Cook is obscured by clouds. On Dick's 66th birthday this is certainly the way it started out, as we trekked up a very steep, rocky path for 1.5 hours. Suddenly, we emerged above the clouds on to a plateau to be greeted by a truly magical scene of Mount Cook and the surrounding peaks and glaciers bathed in brilliant sunlight. After spending two serene hours drinking in the scenery Dick's need to get down from the heights compelled us to tackle the most difficult part - descending - which felt like stepping off the mountain side into thin air. In September 2010 and in February 2011 ... read more

Christchurch looks like it must have been a lovely city, the earthquake made a real mess, C B's back is killing him. photo to follow, weather is good here the food is expensive and crap, no change there, got a bike today picking it up tomoz, then setting off to Lake Tekapo, all kitted up should be good. Love you all Ta Ta for now... read more

One year on from: Feb 22 2011: The day a city shook and then time stood still I am not sure that I expected to be quite as emotional as I was when I walked around what is termed the Red Zone in Christchurch. All of us have seen the pictures and read the stories since that fateful day last year but to experience it up close was quite staggering. I walked through Hagley Park, out through the Botanical Gardens, crossed the road and then followed Worcester Street to the river. I could see the larger buildings still towering above the CBD but my attention was drawn to the ruins in the distance. When we last visited Christchurch in 2008 we had enjoyed wandering around Cathedral Square and looking up at the stone building and realising ... read more