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Christchurch in Catastrophe onto Christchurch at Christmas!!
What an incredible day. Very emotional. Very humbling and yet very inspiring. A city not yet ready to move on. A city not ready to rebuild. A city where the people are full of pride and hope and ambitions.
We started early and decided to head into the city centre on the bus. We booked an afternoon tour around the city on a bus so wanted to tour on foot and boy what a decision that was. Without knowing it, we walked straight into the centre of the most damaged region and a cordoned off area that had been opened to the public today for the first time since the devastation. There were TV and radio crews everywhere recording people and their reactions and was incredibly moving for the locals. An elderly man behind us could not face going into the area because of the memories and emotions it evoked. The walkway took us past the Christchurch Cathedral and showed the devastation close up. Stories and facts kept coming. This morning the council has announced that 6000 homes in addition to those already condemned will now have to be destroyed and the bad news keeps on coming for the locals..... The aftershocks are still preventing demolition and rebuilding work here and so almost everything is on hold. There are beautiful buildings abandoned, scary figures being discussed for rebuilding costs and spray paint everywhere outlining the current status of the building and also where people were found. The main issue during the earthquake is something called liquid faction due to the city being built on a cleared swamp. I could talk about this forever and so will stop so we have plenty to bore you with when we get home.
The afternoon bought the tour on a route master double checker London bus. Christchurch is after all the most English city outside of England. Every street is named after a place in England and Sarah took particular joy at finding the junction between Manchester Street and Cambridge Terrace. The tour was again very moving. Stories of the loss of loved ones, of lives being torn apart and then again stories of hope and the plans for the rebuild whenever it may be ready to happen. The guide took to us as honeymooners and was very kind to us and dropped us back off at our campsite at the end. We had been told about a free Christmas Concert occurring in the park that evening and so had time for a quick BBQ before heading back out.
The concert was great fun. It is the first time the whole city has come together since the earthquake and over 100,000 people turned up. Christchurch had also been deprived of hosting any Rugby World Cup matches due to the stadium needing to be torn down (just after having millions spent on it in preparation). There were Christmas songs and more modern music sung by local artists (inc the winner of Australia Idol 2011 apparently) and was great fun. It was slightly strange to be sat around a Christmas tree singing Christmas songs in the sunshine but was nice not to be freezing too. The evening was polished off by a spectacular fireworks show in time with the music which was great to see.
A beautiful way to spend our last full day in NZ. Time for bed. Tomorrow brings a new adventure in the form of Fiji. What a great adventure this has been. We have laughed and laughed for the last 2 weeks and yet been bought to the brink of tears by what we have witnessed today. We have witnessed scenery that is indescribable in words and that pictures will not come close to doing justice. We have created memories that will last our lifetime and that we will look back and smile upon forever. Thank you New Zealand. Never ever change. You are perfect the way you are.
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