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Decided to spend today looking around Christchurch. We parked near the Botanical Gardens and had a little stroll through the beautifully kept grounds. Our next stop was the I-site to get some info on what was do-able and see-able after the earthquake. We were given a map that had a big red zone marked out on it, which would be closed off until the unsafe multi storeys had been demolished.
We walked up to the red zone perimeter, and it looked like a scene out of the film 28 day's later - very eerily empty, with some green shoots growing through the untrodden pavements. Near-by was a pop-up container mall, where a lot of the shops that were within the red zone could continue to operate in modified shipping containers. It was actually quite cool, and would probably be a good location for a future exhibition about how the earthquake had affected the area.
We stopped at a container to pick up some souvenirs before going on a 3 hour bus tour of Christchurch in a former London double decker bus. The driver, Ross, must have had to change his script completely since the earthquake, but it was interesting to learn from a local about the coping strategies.
For example, quite a few schools had been deemed unsafe, so those that were still safe did split shifts, with one school having lessons from 8-12 and the other from 1-5pm. Also, householders who had decided to opt to insure their properties (insurance is non-mandatory in NZ on both cars and houses) paid a proportion of money to an Earthquake recovery fund, set up by the Canterbury district government after the last major quake in the 1930's. This fund had amassed some $16bn by now which meant that the area was able to foot the bill of many of the repairs needed. The repairs however were likely to take some 20 years in total. It was unfortunate too that the Rugby World Cup games that had been destined for Christchurch got relocated, at a time when the area and local economy could have done with a boost to the coffers. Having said that though, there wouldn't have been enough accommodation to house lots of the visitors.
We drove out to a historic farmstead run by some early settlers, the Dean family, which was pretty; went over a pass to have a birds-eye view of the city, as well as drove out to Sumner (again!) to see the damage there.
After returning to the city, we hot footed it back to the van and headed straight for Bank's Peninsula. Knowing that our fish stock would have a limited shelf life, we would need to have a fish dinner. En route, we pulled into a farm-shop on the side of the road to buy lovely fresh new potatoes and asparagus. We drove into Bank's and on our drive up the hill got further into the low-lying cloud. The views were (according to the guide book!) impossibly beautiful, which I'm sure they were in good weather.
The drive into the little village, which had been founded originally by the French, was nice though. Lots of lovely green hills and trees and a nice bay. We drove through the town and decided to stay in our first Motel, called La Rochelle. Stef did the man thing and, beer in hand, BBQ'd up the grouper and blue cod (they only seen to use gas BBQ's with a skillet over here). Cerys prepared the veg and laid up the little table that was on the veranda. It was one of our more civilised meals, which til now had been mostly pasta based.
We decided to indulge in a DVD night, since the proprietor had lent us a Kiwi film called Boy. Quite funny and poignant, and some good Kiwi humour in there too.
It was good to have the space to re-pack our bags, in preparation for handing over the camper van tomorrow and picking up our relocation car, 'El Cheapo' from Juicy Rentals.
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