Christchurch - a sobering experience
Christchurch, with a population of 325,000 is New Zealand’s second city and we will be spending 6 nights here.
We are staying at a pleasant motel facing Hagley park, close to the centre of the city.
On Monday and Tuesday, I had business to attend to, but this morning Morna and I took a walk into the city centre.
We knew about the earthquakes that struck the city in 2010/11 including the big one that happened on February 22nd 2011. We knew that 185 people had died, but we had no idea of the extent of the devastation and disruption.
The epicentre of the quake was under the city and the seismic waves bounced of the hard rocks of the Banks peninsular and were reflected back to the city causing wave interferences; some parts of the city experienced only minor tremors, others took terrific punishment.
The city centre, the beating heart of the city, was torn apart.
85% of the buildings here were destroyed or damaged beyond repair. Most of the centre’s shops, bars and coffee shops were destroyed. All of its hotels, most of its offices and landmarks.
It is difficult to visualise what the city was like, pre-earthquake, but for sure its citizens loved it.
Some beautiful wood-framed buildings remain…
But turn your back and the sight that presents itself is more typical…
Christchurch was never previously regarded as at risk, so the local building code has now been upgraded and steel and wood framed buildings are in and reinforced concrete is out. This has pushed up the cost of rebuilding sharply and slowed down the reconstruction. All new buildings will be earthquake-proof.
As you can imagine, there is no shortage of construction jobs here, but there is a shortage of accomodation of every kind - shops, offices and houses. Which has lead to some very inventive uses for shipping containers…
At the Re: start mall, a whole new shopping centre has been created out of shipping containers to get Christchurch’s independent businesses trading again.
The cathedral partially collapsed…
And a temporary cathedral has been built from polycarbonate sheets, wood and cardboard…
Look carefully and you will see more creative use of shipping containers.
Christchurch is working hard to rebuild itself, and many more years of work lie ahead before the task is complete. I think the end result be be rather special.