The Ghost of Memories Past

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Christchurch once was regarded as the garden city, because of the plentiful gardens that surround the city. Vibrancy and life once occupied the city and was once renowned a place of great beauty. Well this is how I remembered Christchurch, well before 2010. Since then I have visited the city twice, and both times the landscape and the feeling of the city was extremely different. The last time was in early January 2011 and the city was shaken by a massive earthquake not that long before I arrived, but most of the city was still alive and buzzing, with the exception of two places, Christs College and the Cathedral.



However I returned to the Garden city of New Zealand and it was a stark contrast, the once delightful city is now more an urban ghost town. The most recent large earthquake has literally shaken the city to it's core (pardon the pun). Most of the city centre is now an urban red zone with the once cosmopolitan cityscape vibrant with life and beginning to pierce the sky with large buildings. However now it is completely different. The city scape has changed with many of the large buildings that dominated Christchurch's skyline have now wither fallen due to the earthquake or they have been demolished because the earthquake has resulted in the building being uninhabitable and have the potential to be extremely dangerous.



Firstly, the much decorated Cathedral, the once major tourist destination of the largest city in the South Island, has now been all but completely totalled. The once majestic opulent monument is now a half collapsed church and unfortunately nothing else. The Church spire has now completely fallen and it has been sitting dormant for so long that moss has begun to grow on the exposed bricks and mortar that used to be the building blocks of the centralised Christchurch icon. Now completely fenced off, it creates an unfortunate feeling of disappointment for me, as one of the Southern Hemisphere's most magnificent monuments to the lord is now just rubble awaiting news of it's future, the bulldozer or the rebuild. Only when time unfolds will the details of the future unfurl. One can hope the Christchurch council see the light and choose to rebuild the Cathedral to its once obvious glory.



Surrounding the Cathedral, is the Cathedral square. The last time I was there it was exceptionally busy as it was during the world busker's festival. Also it was full of bright eye tourists excited to explore the city. However now the old information site, which was once housed in an outstanding and beautiful olden style building, now that building fortunately is still standing. However it is completely closed off, and the area around it has either been bulldozed or closed off too. But recent effort to make the old square regain some of it's vitality is the building of small boxes with opulent green lawns situated on them, some strategically designed levels and a structure with multi-coloured flags tied upon cables that stretch between the erected posts. With clear blue skies and the old i-site in the immediate background it is a beautiful view and a powerful reminder of the present and the past of the city, and makes the visitor think what the future will hold for the once vibrant city centre.



Barely a few minutes walk at a leisurely pace you reach the old shopping precinct in the centre of the city. It used to be two brick lane alleys that boasted some of the biggest chains in the world, or at least the pacific rim. However now days that old area has be completely levelled by the ever powerful bulldozer. Only a handful of the old buildings still remain, two of those that I remember being the Subway fast-food chain and the old Just Jeans franchise store. However both of those shop fronts have been boarded over and both have suffered vandalism with the glass being indelibly scratched and the common coat of spray paint showcasing irrelevant and stupid tags.





However it is not all doom and gloom for the city centre in Christchurch, since being affected by the earthquakes, renovations have finally commenced on two important Christchurch icons. That being the Arts Centre and the other being Christ's College. Both being situated right by the entrance to the Botanic Gardens, which fortunately was in the most part unaffected by the two earthquakes that much ravaged the city and surrounding suburbs of Christchurch. It may have taken several years but positive steps have finally being taken and this is giving hope that the most important facets of Christchurch;s identity won't be completely lost and that they will slowly return.

But after visiting all of the iconic places around Christchurch, I decided to do something rather selfish and go and visit the hostel in which I stayed the last time I was in Christchurch. Well I planned on visiting the Hostel to see how much damage had occurred, however the assessment was not able because the old reception area had been completely levelled and bulldozed and the old dorm facilities in which I stayed in on the first night in New Zealand the last visit was still standing, however it had been completely fenced off. Which was disappointing because I would have loved to seen the inside of the building and get a real idea of how much damage the earthquake really did. But I have to settle for an outside view of the building which was now being overgrown by weeds and shrubs that are sprouting through the cracked and destroyed pavement.





So far all I have really talked about is the sights that I have seen. But I really should explain the feeling that overcame me because the feelings that overcame me where completely understandable. A sense of eerieness was the most prominent feeling. It was weird to be in a once busy city that now is pretty much the modern day equivilant of a ghost-town. It seemed slightly spooky, almost like the city was fully possessed by the ghosts of it's past. But who is to say that it is not. Walking near the Cathedral if you are lucky enough to do it by yourself you can really experience this. Due to the way it was designed it just has this unexplainable feeling that the square was meant to be a prominent location in the city. But now it just has an empty feeling. Similarly on the outskirts of the city business districts you can be overcome by a feeling of sadness. For me at least I felt sad due to a feeling of loss in both the vibrancy of the city and because of the lives that were lost in the unfortunate natural disaster.





But fortunately there has been new developments within the city. I'm not sure whether they are meant to be a make-shift solution or if they are going to be a permanent fixture in the fix of Christchurch, but the old shipping containers are being used to bring some business back to the much ravaged city centre. Not only are they allowing some of the previous business ventures that created the business of the city but they also help bring some colour back to the now particularly dull and bland city. Whether they were some overly fluorescent colour or just a more mundane colour. It was hard to avoid the fact that they stood out and drew some of the attention away from the damaged buildings. Realising that this is a sound idea, many businesses including banks, fashion chains and book stores have all bought into this venture and set up a small shopping precinct near the old shopping hub in Christchurch, but with one difference. All the shops are constructed from shipping containers. Arranged to confuse the senses and create a buying frenzy (it's called the Gruen Transfer), there are many 'stores' and even some food vans to create a real shopping experience, and for me it is one that I won't easily forget due to the unusualness of the shopping experience. Not that I actually purchased anything.





After two days in Christchurch I decided that it was time to pick up the proverbial anchor and set sail again, but after a very brief conversation with another person staying in my dorm, he had persuaded me to go with him and get some beer and play a few drinking games in the common room in the hostel. After experiencing the idiocy of not accepting an Australian drivers license as proof of age, as you need to look over 25 to purchase beer, the French guy, Valentin and myself finally got a carton of beer and ventured back to the hostel, where we sat ourselves in front of the TV and began with our drinking games. Slowly more and more the gang of us drinking grew. Initially we gained a cool chick from the UK, Helen. Two nice girls from Germany, Sophie and Kimi and another of the guys from Valentin and my room, Jonas, yet another German. What I assumed was going to be a quiet night, turned out to be a rather good night with great Banter and many many beers.

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