We finished off Christchurch with a visit to the cardboard Cathedral, which is the temporary home of worshippers while the debate goes on as to what shall happen to the Cathedral damaged during the earthquake. One set of people want to demolish and rebuild, the others want to keep the existing building and try and restore it.
We had said goodbye to Ann from the Eliza Boutique Hotel, who had made us so very welcome for our last two nights in New Zealand and certainly filled us up with breakfast.
The work that has gone on into restoring and fixing this place since the earthquake has been phenomenal.
This sign had confused us for some time so we summoned up the courage to ask Ann what they meant. The answer was not as you think but they had suffered from youths driving round and round at night playing boy racers. Finally, after many protests from the poor locals, the council have finally passed a law stopping this practice and to break the rule there is a huge fine. As soon as the law was passed the boy racers stopped. Result a very happy Ann and Harold who unfortunately was not around when we left to be in the picture.
So we headed for the airport, and boarded the flight to Melbourne. Our chum John McEvoy met us at the airport and we picked up the hire car, with John very kindly guiding us out of the town to his house. That is where today has ended, with dinner,a welcome glass of Rose and any minute now a good nights kip.
Thanks for reading, more news from a whole new other country tomorrow. M & M
I know exactly what you mean about the empty but rubble ridden places in ChCh. When I was growing up in Kennington near LWT…I too played in the Bomb Ruins that were fenced off with interior doors. For years I thought all fences were made from doors!.. From my bedroom window one could see where the string of bombs landed…Every 7th house or so was wasteland, including 2 directly behind ours..Too close!…Time has a habit of re-inventing itself! Loved the traffic jam bit…By the way…The great places you visited and reported beautifully on on the west coast of the South Island..Are now under water after the worst rains in nearly a year! Well Missed!….M&S
happy onward travels xx
Thanks Nan. We got stuck in a traffic jam coming away from the airport; there had been a crash on the bridge involving about four cars. Three lane motorway and hard shoulder reduced to two. Stuck in a queue for about 20 minutes, shades of the M25, we must be getting nearer home! M & M xxx
Brilliant photos and descriptors,made one feel they were on the trip with you. Must admit though I ducked out of a few of the meals!! Safe journey home.regards Brian
I didn’t realise we had talked about meals that much! Must go back and look. Thanks Brian it has been wonderful. M & M
The Picture of the white chairs is indeed very moving and thought provoking – I have tears.
The whole place looks like Salford still did after the war when I was a lad. We used to play on old bomb sites and that’s just what Christchurch looks like. As I said the devastation was much, much more than ever I saw or read about at the time. The whole heart of this city was decimated, the rebuilding process will and is taking some time. M & M