Christchurch

After a leisurely breakfast we headed into the city on the bus. It’s only a 15 minute journey from the campsite so we were there in no time. Wandering into the town from the bus station we fortunately ran into a tram coming our way, our plan for the day had been to take the hop-on-hop-off tram around the city first thing to get a lay of the land then sally forth and explore. Turns out Christchurch isn’t a large city (centre) and definitely walkable. The tram driver gave loads of great bits of trivia about different sites in the city, I would recommend. 45 minutes later we jumped off the tram at the Riverside food market, a newly built (like most of Christchurch) warehouse type construction housing a wide array of food vendors. We both went for the same place which specialised in amazing looking salads with meat and fries, I got beef (fell apart, delicious) and Amelia got falafel. We then devoured some cookies from Moustache and headed back out into the city. 

Christchurch Cahedral

Our next stop was the art gallery, which I wasn’t all that inspired by apart from a digital piece that highlighted different parts of the room it was in. I don’t think Amelia classed it as art but I thought it was great. The humble corner/skirting board/return etc don’t get the glory they deserve. There’s an odd sculpture of an aubergine which spurts water sitting on a stool outside. Also a large brass bull which has a speaker connected to a security guard so when drunken youths jump on it at night he can shout to get them off. Clever.

Our next stop was the Quake museum, a gallery about the (many) earthquakes that have happened in Christchurch over the years, with particular focus on those in 2010 and the tragedy of 2011. A massively eye opening experience, I found myself most drawn to the series of interviews of people who were there and were trapped for hours in the fallen buildings. The centre of the city has so many areas that just haven’t been rebuilt yet, which have been left as gravel car parks in the interim. The city centre is essentially all brand new, which makes it a pretty unique place. On the same theme our next stop was the cardboard cathedral, the temporary cathedral constructed out of structural cardboard tubes for use while the (extensively) damaged cathedral is restored. Unfortunately there was choir practice on while we were there so couldn’t take any photos inside, but a great use of a recyclable material for a temporary building (it’s still built to stand for 30 years though). 

Cardboard Cathedral

Another fascinating site was a demolished building with it’s basement and ground level substructure left intact (rebar and all showing) which has turned into a pond which not a rare species of seagull have chosen as a nesting site. There are hundreds of birds there now. 

Abandoned demolished building with the rare seagulls nesting

After Amelia got some ice cream from a ridiculous gelato shop we had a casual drink on the waterfront and headed back. A very interesting day, Christchurch is a fascinating city, defined by the tragic earthquakes that have struck over the years.