Mags and Mike's Travel Blog: Catching up in Christchurch

Sat 2nd - Wednesday 7th March

Stayed a few days in Christchurch with Jo Sharpe, a childhood friend of Maggie's. Really great to catch up and see something of this area.

Jo Sharpe and Mags

Jo lives in New Brighton. The sea is just across the road. Great beach, rather more sandy than Brighton beach in the UK.

New Brighton beach, Christchurch


New Brighton Pier

Visited Akaroa, an interesting little coastal village with a French feel. For once the weather was cool that day, hence the clouds!

Fascinating to get an insider's view of the impact of the recent earthquakes in Christchurch. You hear about earthquakes and feel sympathy for those involved but until you see the devastation at first hand, it's difficult to appreciate just how big an impact it has had on Christchurch. Jo took us on a "devastation" tour around the city. The damage is extensive, both in the City Centre and surrounding suburbs, partly because there have been lots of earthquakes - the big three and another 2,700 and counting. There are streets and streets of housing that's been or will be demolished, much of the the infrastructure (sewers, roads etc.) is shot. Some communities have been completely dispersed and homeowners without insurance and or financial resources have pretty much no help to rebuild their home somewhere else. The long term consequences could therefore be very "interesting".

From a property/town planning perspective, it's a huge opportunity to rebuild a city but goodness knows whether there will ever be enough cash. It's estimated that it will take $40 - 60 billion to reconstruct the housing alone, let alone the infrastructure, commercial and other buildings.

As always there are lots of hard choices and some controversial decisions such as spending at least $6 million on a temporary "cardboard" cathedral. Could rehouse lots of displaced families with that money! But despite the huge impact there's still a feeling of optimism about this place. The pop up mall in the city centre is made out of containers and is a lovely space with interesting shops. The strong Kiwi spirit is very evident here.