Christchurch

I was in Christchurch, New Zealand from midday of the 10th until the evening of the 11th. Usually we have another day in Christchurch, but the temperatures at McMurdo have been so warm that the ice runway is melting and they need to land the planes around 6am when temperatures are coolest. This means we leave Christchurch at midnight for the six hour flight down.

While in Christchurch, I walked around the city for a bit and visited the Canterbury Museum as well as the gardens. As many of you know, Christchurch suffered a devastating earthquake this past February and the entire downtown area is blocked off. The city seems like a ghost town in a lot of ways, but there are signs that things will be picking up.


This is a photo I took last year.


















And here is how it looks now.















Another photo from last year.















I was surprised to see this church still standing.















This is a photo from last year.















You can see that this church wasn't so lucky.















I thought this was an interesting way to support the roof, but shipping containers are a common site in Christchurch these days.


















You can see they've labeled many of the debris from the church.














This sign always cracks me up, and it's even funnier because I recently did this and didn't have the tracks to blame.















This is a photo from last year. At this point Christchurch had already suffered some serious earthquakes, but not as bad as the one in February.



















Here it is now.















I assume the carpenter was getting paid by the cut.



















A trash can full of debris that I doubt has been emptied since February.















A photo of one of the colleges here last year.




















And you can see what it looks like now.














The Croydon House Bed and Breakfast that I've stayed at my past two trips to Antarctica.



















What it looks like now.















This is a photo I took last year of the garden behind the main building at the Croydon House.















You can see all that remains are the trees on the right side of the previous photo.















The downtown area must have hundreds of businesses that had to be searched and are now boarded up.















The building that in the middle of this photo that looks like it is under construction is actually being deconstructed. It is the Hotel Grand Chancellor, which I happened to stay at during one of my trip to New Zealand. You can also get a bit of a feel for how much of an area has been closed down.















Here you can see what remains of the Bog, an Irish pub that we always made sure to visit before going down to Antarctica. There are a lot of parking lots now in the downtown area where buildings used to stand.














I saw tags from New Zealand, Taiwan, the UK, and US from the search and rescue efforts.

































Here's a photo I took of the Cathedral last year.














And here is what it looks like now.































I do appreciate that the Canterbury Museum still gets in the spirit of the holidays.















You should be able to read the text in this photo of you zoom in on it, but basically a lady from New Zealand made a heart for the people of Christchurch following the earthquake. As word got out about it, over 4,000 hearts were made all over the world and sent to Christchurch. The Canterbury Museum has a really neat display of many of the hearts.

































Some of the hearts that were sent from all over the world






























































Here you can see part of the effort to keep Christchurch going. There are a collection of these buildings made out of sea containers in the downtown area. I would say it represents a very small fraction of the businesses that used to be in the Christchurch, but it is still a popular area.














They even have ATMs in sea containers.