I have visited Christchurch in August 2010 - before the earthquake(s). I only had a couple of hours back then - so I got to see the city center with its famous church, walk to botanical gardens and shop for souvenirs. It was really heartbreaking to come to the city center in ruins. The heart of the city suffered the most - many buildings collapsed and many are now being demolished because they are unsafe. I guess it is one thing to hear about a devastating earthquake on TV - seeing it with my own eyes made it much more real.
I did however really admire christchurch(ians) for dealing with the disaster face on. They brought trailers to the city center and opened temporary shops and cafes - great tourist destination and a way to earn money. Zozo and I decided to support project Re:start. First we had coffee there:
Then we walked around and shopped for souvenirs.
Went to botanical gardens to cheer up.
It was raining off and on all day and it finally cleared up a little. I decided to ride a bike - something I was planning to do all along, but was trying to avoid the rain.
The first half an hour of my ride went really smoothly - I biked along the river enjoying the scenery. Then it started raining again, really hard. I was biking back to return the bike, going through the ruined buildings and getting progressively wetter with every minute. The Mayan prediction of the end of civilization all of a sudden did not seem so unrealistic. Ruins and rain - that's how it all ends ;)
After unsuccessfully trying to hail the bus in the rain, Zozo and I walked to the bus terminal and caught the next bus out. It turned out we were hailing the bus from the wrong side of the street - it was a one-way street and I did not anticipate the bus stopping on the left side of it. I was wet and tired and not thinking straight I guess. Oh New Zealanders drive on the wrong side of the road... Either or ;)
Anyway, all is well that ends well.
Thanks for reading ;)
No comments:
Post a Comment