Christchurch NZ, My Personal Post-Quake Tour
Christchurch, New Zealand is known for beautiful gardens.
Christchurch, New Zealand has long been known as “The Garden City.” However, these days when I mention my home-away-from-home in New Zealand, I’m likely to hear “Isn’t that the place that was pretty much destroyed by an earthquake?”
Well, yes. There’s that, but it wasn’t just “an earthquake.” Since the first quake in September 2010, Christchurch has rocked and rolled thousands of times. However, only one – a 6.3 on February 22, 2011 – claimed lives. But the quakes have done a colossal amount of damage – primarily in the city center and eastern suburbs – and disrupted nearly every aspect of life in what was New Zealand’s second largest city. Many residents have subsequently left, making Christchurch third in size after Auckland and Wellington.
Christchurch “Sure to Rise” tee shirts repurpose the slogan for NZ’s iconic baking powder.
So is it depressing to visit Christchurch?
Absolutely not. My favorite words for describing New Zealanders are “kind, funny, determined, fair-minded, cheerful, positive, and resourceful” and these qualities are why the city is in the midst of an exciting resurgence today.
As our Airbnb host explained, “In 2010, Christchurch went from being a staid colonial city to being a contemporary urban center. Today we are the only city in New Zealand with a large amount of public art, pop-up restaurants, and an activist university student population. We’ve even won an International Urban Innovation Award.”
The Re:Start Mall is a colorful collection of shipping containers repurposed as banks, shops, and cafes.
Christchurch cones and containers
While innovation and energy are palpable in Christchurch, the first thing visitors see are the large number of orange traffic cones (think 50,000) and shipping containers in the CBD and suburbs.
The cones are great for blocking roads and redirecting traffic in construction areas. The colorful containers are positioned to keep damaged buildings from falling over and to stop boulders from dropping onto the roads. The containers also serve as temporary restaurants, shops, medical facilities, banks, and offices.
Every tour of post-quake Christchurch should include a stroll around the Re:START Mall in the city center. Here – in an innovative mall made of shipping containers – boutiques, coffee houses, and a public market offer chic fashion, yummy food, and unusual gifts.
While you’re at the Re:START Mall, take some time to view the films and exhibits at Quake City. Organized by the Canterbury Museum, this attraction is the single best place in Christchurch to get your head around the whole multi-earthquake phenomena.
The 185 chairs memorial.
Christchurch – the sad parts
I felt like I’d been punched in the gut the first time I saw the once-beautiful ChristChurch Cathedral in its ruined state. All I could do was stand there sobbing and gasping for breath. The Asian tourist groups in the Square must have thought I was nuts, but I had a history with this landmark and I felt like my heart had just been ripped out of my chest. I’d like to tell you that I’m “over it,” but I’m not.
It was also sad to see the memorial to the 185 people who died in the February 22, 2011 quake. They are remembered with 185 empty white chairs in various shapes and sizes set up in one of the city’s many empty lots.
Christchurch – the happy parts
The Cardboard Cathedral is a few blocks from the landmark ChristChurch Cathedral that was badly damaged in 2011.
Kiwis do not wait for someone else to fix what’s broken. After the first earthquake, many Christchurch residents needed help. That’s when Sam Johnson, a Canterbury University student, rallied friends and started the Student Volunteer Army. The SVA monitored notices on a Facebook page and dispatched teams of students to where they could be useful. This model of community involvement has now spread throughout NZ, and Johnson has been invited to advise similar program around the world.
Likewise, with the Cathedral and other churches in ruins, Christchurch needed a house of worship. An email sent to “disaster architect” Shigeru Ban in Japan was met with a positive response. Waiving a fee, he designed the Transitional Cardboard Cathedral using shipping containers for the walls, laminated cardboard tubes for the A-frame ceiling, and sheets of colored acrylic for “stained-glass” windows. The beautiful 700-seat Anglican cathedral, completed in just over two years, was the first sign of new life in the city.
Another project, The Tannery, was already a work in progress before the first earthquake and was fast-tracked for completion after the quake. Here, a collection of light industrial buildings have been converted to a popular brewery pub, several restaurants (we loved our lunch at Mitchelli’s), and shops in a Victorian style arcade.
The contemporary design of the Christchurch Art Gallery complements the city’s heritage buildings.
As much as I like new architecture, I’ve always had a soft spot for the city’s Neo Gothic heritage buildings. Some of these were too damaged to save, but I was very happy to see that the Sign of the Takahe, the Arts Centre, and others are being repaired.
I was also excited that the stunningly beautiful Christchurch Art Gallery re-opened just before our recent stay in the city. It first opened in 2003, but became the Civil Defense headquarters after the 2011 earthquakes. I love the contemporary design and openness of this building, but what warmed my heart was the prominent neon artwork EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ALRIGHT mounted high on an outside wall of the Gallery. This was switched on for the first time in late 2015.
This state-of-the art playground / waterpark is right in the center of the Christchurch CBD.
Christchurch, the Garden City
I consider myself fortunate to have good friends in Christchurch. One of them has been providing this itinerant journalist food and shelter for several decades. Others – including one particularly cute 5-year-old – I met for the first time on our recent trip. It was she who gave me the tip on the brand new state-of-the-art Margaret Mahy Playground in the city center.
We celebrated above-mentioned cutie’s birthday with a picnic in the Botanic Gardens during our stay. I’ve long loved this place for its winding paths that lead past amazing collections of hydrangeas, tall trees, and gorgeous roses. This time I discovered more to love, including a post-quake Visitor Centre with a light and bright café and a charming gift shop.
So should Christchurch still be known as “The Garden City?” Or is it now “New Zealand’s Most Innovative Urban Center?”
Yes and yes.
Cheers,
“Everything’s going to be alright.”
Category: New Zealand
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