Christchurch

05/01/12-07/01/12

On the road again as I made my way to the airport to board my flight to New Zealand, a mix up of booking a shuttle bus meant I arrived at the airport with only an hour before departure, so I had a mad rush to get onto my plane which I did safely. My first destination in the country with the low cloud was to be Christchurch, famous now for being the victim of several big earthquakes over the past year especially one which happened in February. After making way to my hostel I took a walk into town to discover how much was still blocked off due to earthquake damage. Even after nearly a year the whole of the city centre is still closed off, walking around the mesh fencing surrounding the exclusion zone I literally failed to see any other people. Those I did come across where mainly tourists who were inspecting the damage. I did find the new shopping area which has been set up near to the central; here shipping containers have been converted to act as temporary cafes and shops. The whole area was like a ghost town, businesses have moved to new premises while it is decided what to do to get the back on the road to recovery.

On my first full day I hopped on the bus to visit the Air Force Museum just on the outskirts of town. Here they have a collect of several aircraft which the New Zealand air forces use to fly. Taking the backstage tour I experienced my first ever earthquake as we were walking through an old Second World War hanger. It lasted only 3 seconds and felt like a train had passed underground. Heading back to the city centre I called in at the local Canterbury museum which has a large Maori collection and well as several artefacts from Antarctic expeditions. Back at the hostel I felt my next two earthquakes that day the biggest being at 1.30 in the morning were I awoke to find myself being shaken from side to side in my bed. It’s not the best experience to be in a building when an earthquake happens – as I had found out three times that day!

With no much to see around town I did several walks around town including in the botanical gardens and around the whole excursion zone. The most spookiest thing I discovered was a restaurant were plates of food and glasses of wine have been left where they were after the major earthquake hit in February, it was like a time capsule into what people were doing when it hit. That evening I went to a local pub with several others from my dorm room to have my first proper pint for several months.