Christchurch Day 1 14/9/13
We got up fairly late had coffee and a bacon butty then watched some tv while we woke up. When we were feeling refreshed we headed out to check out the botanical gardens and the town center. It was a smashing day bright and clear.
We wandered into the botantical and right away you could see the effects of the high winds which swept through a day or two ago. Branches and flowers strewn along the ground and several trees with quite thick branches torn off. Still it was a nice garden and full of spring flowers ducklings and other birds.
We saw the New Zealand garden which was less flashy that some but still interesting mostly trees furns and the like. The Heather garden which was quite colourful. The rock garden full of little flowering plants. It was too early for roses but there were some Dahlias out. The main conservatory and green houses were closed this time due to the 2010/2011 earth quakes. We had a look around the area and then headed out to see the town.
The center of town is full of abandoned buildings either in the process of being torn down or just sitting vacant. The damage from the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes is extensive and whole blocks are just cordoned off awaiting destruction or repair. The main shopping area is one of the damaged sections so to replace it they’ve setup shops out of cargo containers stacked up in a lot, calling it Re:Start. It’s a fairly ingenious solution.
We wandered the area and then had Butter Chicken Pizza from a stone fired pizzaria operating out of one of the cargo contianers. It was delicious just the right mix of curry crisp pizza tasty cheese and delicious chunks of chicken. Refueled we headed to Quake City a museum about the quakes and the area. It started with an audio visual feature about the maoiri beliefs about the earthquakes then detailed the history of quakes past up to the most recent ones. It had videos of the quake an explantion of it’s effects and artefacts recovered from the damaged areas as well as solutions and rebuilding designs for the city center.
It was a fairly interesting museum and gave a lot of detail on the area. After that we wandered over to he cathedral to take a look at that. It was one of the structures damaged during the quake and it’s still in a pretty poor state. On the way over we saw building after building closed boarded up waiting demolition or repair it was a bit post apocalyptic all these abandoned shops and office blocks. Around the cathedral you could look in any direction and see an abandoned building. We took a few pictures then headed back.
We decided to cut through the botanical gardens on the way back and found it was somewhat closed several of the exit gates were chained shut and for a while it looked like we would be spending the night on a park bench we did find the exit which was still open to foot traffic.
We got back to the hotel and decided to get an internet code so we could upload a few pictures and generally catch up. I found that the alpha of Godus had been released so downloaded that and had a play while byrnie did some xcom.
Later we were a bit hungry so went out for sandwiches our timing brought us to the shop the same time a large gang of probably drunk new zealanders arrived on a bus. So the queue was quite long. Eventually we headed back to eat and play some more games before turning in fairly late.
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