The New Christchuch

Between the weekends spent traveling and hiking, it's good to remember why I'm here and that it's not, as is may appear, an all-expense paid vacation to New Zealand. I took this weekend to rest and see what I needed to see in Christchurch. What I realized, as I took a step back and let myself enjoy this place, is that I love it. Not in a can't-live-without-it-never-want-to-leave kind of way, but in a protective I-can't-believe-I'm-leaving-before-it's-all-better kind of way. I love it in the way that I want to give the city and hug and tell it that everything is going to be OK. 

But let's be real, the view for my afternoon coffee wasn't half bad.

The city was first hit by the Canterbury Earthquakes in September of 2010 and it really jolted the city, damaging many buildings and surprising everyone with it's location and magnitude. After many smaller aftershocks, the second severe quake came in February 2011. Because many of the buildings had been shaken previously, and thus weakened, the second quake did a lot of damage. They closed the entire central business district for a period of time, evacuating all the residents. I was working on a building today and someone near me asked if there were any signs of forced entry. I looked at him confused, and he said not like criminal forced entry, but that many buildings were broken in to by first responders to make sure no one was passed out inside. I hadn't even thought of this, and imagining it really makes me feel for the residents of this city, and how they must have felt when the quakes first happened. 

The CBD has since reopened and life is coming back to the city, but now is the hard part: The Rebuild. Another colleague explained to me that most of the buildings that are standing today are most likely fine. Simply put, the ones that were going to fall down already did, and the ones that did not are strong enough to survive the next quake, if there is one. Still, there is a massive paranoia among building owners, and in my experience,  most building owners would like to collect the insurance money, tear the building down, and start anew with really solid foundations and a perfectly flat slab ;).

The other day at I was working on a building located right in the center of the city. I had to use a Google Earth view for one of my reports, and although Google Earth is a little outdated, and in the time since the photo was taken even more buildings have been demolished, the amount of empty lots in the heart of the city center really made me think, this city lost a lot of its heart and soul, along with its buildings, in the earthquakes.

So many empty lots..

Stepping away from Google maps, and actually going to the buildings strikes even harder. One of my buildings used to be a beautiful residential tower. In one direction, the residents could see over the tree tops, all the way out to the Southern Alps. And in the other direction - nothing but the port hills. Before the quakes, this building must have been luxurious. The penthouse, now a unit I all but refuse to go in, had a gorgeous chandelier, still hanging, but missing a few pieces. It breaks my heart to see the contrast between what used to be and what is now. And if that doesn't get you, try walking in to a few of the bedrooms and looking at the calendars on the walls, opened to February 2011. The earthquake was on February 22nd, 2011, meaning that they evacuated immediately -- before they could even turn the page to March. Talk about traumatic.

Seen on my site visit

But this city isn't giving up and it's residents aren't (for the most part) going anywhere. This is the new Christchurch. And the people here are embracing it, because, what else are you going to do.

This weekend the sun was shining in Christchurch, so I decided to do what very few people do in this city, walk around. I intended just to walk to the mall for some Christmas shopping and some lunch, but my walk ended up taking a few more turns and giving me a lot more insight in to the city, as well as a good tour of the destruction. 

The first stop on my walk was, as intended, the Re:Start Mall. Probably the best mall in Christchurch, but all the shops are housed in shipping containers. Even the bathroom is in a shipping container! These containers are one of my favorite parts of Christchurch.

The outside of the Re:START Mall. Check out those shipping containers!

They were originally brought in to stabilize facades and hillsides, and though many have been removed, as the hillsides are otherwise stabilized, many still remain and the shipping containers have become their own architectural style. Aside from the container mall, I've seen architecture offices set in the containers, and even a bar made of shipping containers. The ones that are still being used to stabilize the hillsides, are being covered by murals to make them more attractive to the community.

Shipping containers stabilizing the hillside in Sumner

Today on my run, I even saw some that were recently placed in Hagley Park -- I really don't understand these but they will probably be there through the "Christmas in the Park" festival next weekend, and I mean, what's a festival without shipping containers? 

Christmas came early.. and Santa brought more shipping containers.

After shopping at the container mall, I walked over the Cathedral Square.

The site has been left largely the way it was on February 22nd, 2011. The rubble is still there. Semi-permanent steel framing has been built to hold up what is left of the roof, as some of it cantilevers over the piles of rubble that used to hold it up. There is fencing around it and a giraffe (one of many installed around the city to show "Christchurch standing tall") standing proudly in front.The first time I saw the Cathedral in its current state, I thought, why don't they take it down? Of all the other, less iconic buildings that I'm here to assess, why has no one touched this one? As far as I can tell they're not really sure what to do with it, and in its current state its not hurting anyone. It's shocking to see, but provides a clear vision to any passerby of what happened to this city. So for now it stays.

In new-Christchurch fashion, why I so love this city, a few blocks away, past several more empty lots, is the new Cardboard Cathedral.

I remembered seeing a photo of this in the NYT 52 Places to Go in 2014 (Christchurch is #2!), so I went to see it on my walk. It's small and quiet, but serves as an inspiring symbol of the rebuild. It was meant to be temporary, but since it's so symbolic, and they haven't figured out what to do with the original cathedral, they've kept it open. It was even visited by Prince William and Kate this spring! It costs $600/day to maintain so I did my duty, buying a few souvenirs, and then continued on my walk.

I wandered in to a bookstore, looking for books about Christchurch and the quakes. Many of the books on the earthquake are hundreds of pages long, providing far more detail than I want, but I found a small book called "You Know You're from ChCh When...." I sat down to flip through it, and even though I've only been here for six weeks, I could relate so much to this book, Here are a few of the excerpts:

You know you're from ChCh when,

1. Where high vis and hard hats are high fashion.

Not in Christchurch, but here's a picture of me in my high fashion gear :)

2. Where building demolition has become a spectator sport

     Even more so than building demolition, new buildings going up and others getting releveled are getting so much attention. The slab being poured next to my office gets an unreasonable amount of attention from everyone I work with. We also went to a special open house of a company who is releveling a large building in the CBD. It was very well attended, and rightfully so as they were handing out free coffee and muffins. They even asked me if I wanted to have one of their pens. 

3. Where all of your photos have gray wire fencing them. 

If this doesn't scream Christchurch... wire fence, shipping containes, a crane, and a traffic cone

4. Where locals can't even give directions anymore.
     So. Much. Road. Works. and no detours, by the way. Just make a few more turns and hope it works out -- but it probably won't because the next road will be a one way the wrong way, or be closed just for a day, or just not allow you to make a left turn. 

Having appaently qualified as "from ChCh", I walked home feeling a sense of pride in the city I had just walked. It takes a lot for a town to go through a tough time, open a cardboard cathedral, leave their city icon as a partially collapsed structure and constant reminder , and then to write a book joking about all of those things. What good character Christchurch has developed.

They even put these things in the middle of the road to "Green the Rubble"

To close I'll leave you with the answer to a question that I'm asked almost daily from friends and family back home:"How's NZ?!" I know that they're asking how I'm doing over here, but I'm going to answer that question literally. New Zealand's doing pretty well. The sheep seem happy and the latest scandal to hit this country, aside from a chocolate milk shortage, is that someone decided to make mannequins that show their ribs. This morning on the radio news they reported that Hagel stepped down from the Pentagon, and without skipping a beat, followed with "We are being asked to not drink and play sports this summer, due to the large quantity of people who suffered head injuries from cricket bats last summer." Seriously?! Oh, also there is an internationally noted male drought (except in Christchurch). So on a whole, the country is doing well. And my beloved Christchurch seems to be right there with them. I love you Christchurch, and even though I'm leaving in three and a half weeks (but who's counting?), I will definitely be back, and I can't wait to see this city with more people than sheep ;) . 

My favorite giraffe - here for the Rebuild