Christchurch cycle capers

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A relatively early start, and we're off to do the school run for Will and Jack. I've missed the school run - most people would ask why, but I love going to the playground for a natter, and love the mutual wave thing they've got going just so that the teacher knows you're picking up the right child. Yes, it's backfired on occasion, when I've ended up with three kids - one godchild, one brother and a nephew - but at least I did know them all....

After that, Mimi, her Mum Thea, and I headed off for a cycle ride around Christchurch, thanks to Mary, her next door neighbour, and the loan of a couple of mountain bikes. I've found a new love of cycling since I've been away - setting myself up nicely for a Lands End to John O'Groats charity ride with Leanne! We set off, through the suburbs and into Mona Vale, a beautiful place set against the backdrop of the park, where there are huge sprawling houses backing onto a river. An amazing place to live and relatively undamaged by the earthquake. We stopped for muffins and coffee in the park, watching the world go by, and you'd be unaware that anything so devastating had happened less than 12 months ago.

And that's what's remarkable - in every street, there are a few houses that visibly, look fine, but have been condemned by structural surveyors, and a few more that look the same but have been deemed fine. The roads are bumpy, as a result of the quake, making most only comfortably accessible by 4x4 (and even then, as we were to find out on our journey to Sumner that evening, some roads are uncomfortable no matter what car you're driving). The city centre is devastated - sealed off by 6 foot panels with glass windows so that you can see the city as it was on 22nd February 2011. Restaurants still have menus on the tables, goods are still on display in windows. The area is deemed so unsafe that owners cannot venture in to remove items.

An area has been 'rebuilt' from shipping containers - a whole heap of them used as makeshift shops while the city rebuilds itself. And do you know what - it's pretty cool. London did the same (Camden, I think) for Christmas last year and it makes for a quirkly, sickeningly cool, city centre. There was a haunting element however - a mezzo soprano was busking, singing everything from Ave Maria to the Titanic theme tune in the city, to gasps, cries, and tears of those passing by. Goosebumps all round.

In need of cheering up, we ventured into the English food store to buy snowball teacakes (yum!) and laughed at how a 20p Fudge bar can be $4 in NZ...We left Mimi's mum to entertain the locals while we went shoe shopping (poor Ed, letting his wife go shoe shopping with a shoe addict), and returned with three pairs (all for Mimi, I'll have you know).

Having collected the kids from school (no 'wave' ritual here - it's a free for all. God help me if I lived here - I'd probably end up with a dozen kids claiming to be mine...), we went to see Ed and Mimi's new house, which is stunning, en masse - both Mums, the boys, Ed, Mimi and I. The boys had a night at Grandma's, so Ed, Mimi, Thea and I went to the cinema in Sumner. Sumner, and the road there, was hit hard by the earthquake - houses that sat on cliff tops crumbled into the sea. We drove around the bumpy bumpy road, gasping in amazement at the ruins left behind. We then spent the next 2 hours gasping in confusion at a film that we didn't quite get. I'm sure it's one of those that gets better with watching, or gets better if you've read the book, but we left feeling a bit shell shocked.

A bit like me after seeing Christchurch. Because it's clearly a beautiful city - and will be even more beautiful again, given 10-15 years. The churches, whose spires have been rebuilt at ground level awaiting placement back on the roofs, will be restored to their former glory. Houses will be repaired, rebuilt, reinforced. Roads will be resurfaced. The underlying beauty of the place though cannot be denied - and the bike ride today just proved that. I'm sure many questioned why Ed and Mimi would want to move to Christchurch during such uncertain times (we had an earthquake in the cinema tonight - they happen daily - not that we felt anything) but I can see why. It's got a spirit, has this place, and I for one can't wait to come back again in a few years just to see how this great community gets itself back to its former glory.

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