Thursday 7 March 2013

Christchurch

Christchurch marked the end of our tour of New Zealand, and my viewing of this city in flux was slightly marred by my sadness at having to leave this wonderful country with its many beauties. Still rebuilding following the devastating earthquakes of 2010 and 2012, a large part of the city centre is still cordoned off. You can do tours of this 'Red Zone', but they had finished for the day when we arrived so we did out own tour round the barriers and 'No Entry' signs.

There are still many buildings which bear the evidence of earthquake damage, and a lot of areas where demolition has already taken place, but this is clearly a city on the mend. We stopped by the container shopping mall - an ingenious idea that will hopefully continue even when the city centre has been redeveloped.

We had booked into Jail for the night - Jailhouse hostel that is - an old jailhouse whose cells have been turned into a hostel. As it was our last night, we decided to go out for dinner, and on the recommendation of one of the hostel staff headed to the Pedal Pusher pub. One cocktail, several glasses of wine and some good food later, we sadly packed our bags for the last time and locked ourselves in our cell for our last sleep in New Zealand.

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