Christchurch - Day 1

[david63]

Christchurch was always going to be a difficult place to visit due to the devastation caused by the 2011 earthquake which decimated the centre of the city and was all the more poignant by the fact that we were actually in New Zealand at that time (although nowhere near Christchurch)

Having arrived and got ourselves sorted out we took a walk into the centre where there is still so many signs of what happened seven years ago and it is impossible to try to comprehend what it must have been like. Yes a lot has been done to restore the city but there are so many areas of land that have nothing on them that must have been demolished.

The most poignant edifice is that of the Cathederal where the bell tower is no more and the rest of the building is shored up. It is only in the last few months that they have decided that the Cathederal will be rebuilt as close as possible to the original but be made to withstand an earthquqke - whether they sould spend 104 million NZD (about £60 million) and take ten years to complete it is still open to discussion.

One thing that is quite evident though is the amount of rebuilding that has been done, but it has only scratched the surface - it will take another 20/30 years before Christchurch will be back to "normal" - and that all assumes that there will be no more earthquakes. In fact I was reading in one of the local papers this week that they have only just finished assessing all of the public buildings for their ability to withstand another earthquake.




Source: http://pear-tree.org.uk/blog/index.php? ... Day-1.html