Day 25 - Three Labour Days and .... a War Zone?

Monday, October 28th, 2013

It was well after 1 AM when we arrived at our Christchurch motel. How nice it was to lie in late and hang about until we were hungry enough to go in search of a meal. After brunch we walked around a very quiet Christchurch - it's NZ Labour Day. We've now experienced 3 Labour Days in 2 months!

Although we were expecting to see some effects of the September 2010 and February 2011 earthquakes, we were in shock and close to tears as we walked around. The city core looks like a war zone! Christchurch Cathedral has always been an icon. Millions of dollars had just been spent replacing the roof before the quakes. This is what's left.

Because internet access is limited right now, I am unable to find a 'before' shot to post with this.

What we saw was a maze of temporary fencing, traffic cones, scaffolding and shipping containers. There are piles of rubble, partial buildings and vacant lots everywhere! Apparently 1250 damaged buildings have been removed to date and there are many hundreds to go. Many heritage buildings are still standing awaiting decisions from the courts as to whether they will be repaired or removed. Roads and traffic are a mess as they are replacing water and sewer lines.

We happened upon a "Gap Filler" called the pallet project. "Gap fillers temporarily activate vacant sites here with new ideas and creative projects for community benefit, to make for a more interesting, dynamic and vibrant city." There are currently about 10 gap fillers in Central Christchurch.

The pallet project has created spaces for coffee and food wagons and their clients with stacks of thousands of painted pallets, some with flats of donated plants. This gap filler took up the space that was probably occupied by 4 large buildings before the quakes. In the photo below a group of artists was explaining their vision for the arches on site. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was about to occur.

 We wandered around for several hours before finding a pub called the Pegasus Arms. We noted the appealing meals coming out of the kitchen while we were sipping our beer and live music in the craic style was scheduled to begin before too long, so we decided to stay. Craic or "crack" as it is pronounced is a traditional Irish term for banter, fun, entertainment and enjoyable conversation. In this setting, there were 7 musicians sitting at the table next to us and playing a variety of music similar to what we'd hear in the Maritimes.

It was an enjoyable end to what began as a very sobering visit to Christchurch.