22-24 January: heartbreaking Christchurch

NZMCA Weedons near Christchurch. (Freedom Camping)

I'd been looking forward to seeing this city again - it had been 14 years ago we'd nipped through it as tourists, not realising the significance of the architecture that would be lost forever a few years later. It was time to do some proper sight-seeing, meet up with some friends and catch-up with work. Justin was delivering some training for a few days, so that freed-up some of my time to meet deadlines and do some writing & planning. 

We arrived at Weedons in the rain. :(

The campsite is a massive space - just outside the city. all the facilities, no worries about staying here for any length of time. 

The best 'happy-hour' shed I've seen - full of books and things to do and a 'swapsies' shelf where I pocketed some spare embroidery thread for a project and left a spare cup in exchange. 

A quick bus ride into town - and the swimming pool at Rolleston 2 min drive away. Airport just down the road. Altogether an excellent location - no wonder it's popular with people staying in South Island.

Lots of interesting neighbours and a resident warden who parked next to a local policeman (!)


Before parking-up, out of pure curiosity, I stopped at nearby Rolleston to take a look at the controversial poison factory. It was a rainy and windy Sunday and predictably nothing to look at there.

Apparently, 1080 poison is yet to be made there - and hopefully never will. But I wonder what will happen to it after understandable strong local opposition? 

The site next door on this industrial area is up for lease  - but who in their right mind would set up a business next to THAT amount of risk? It was only a few metres to a residential area (formal risk assessments don't really exist yet in New Zealand - we are outside litigation, for now at least). 

Rolleston is a rapidly expanding residential suburb of commuters from Christchurch - the newly built state-of-the-art school is massive and this is definitely NO place for a toxic poison factory up the road. 

On a more productive note, the next day the weather was much more Summery. I bombed around the city looking at interesting sites and visiting friends and business contacts. It was a busy time which made a nice change after the holiday season laziness. And the campsite was a peaceful place to return to.

An aptly-named French wine we found! :)

Next day, Justin and I took some time out to walk through the city centre including the old cathedral precinct, where the shocking reality of the earthquake that hit 5 years ago was still very much all around. The whole centre of the city is a noisy, dusty and dangerous building-site. 

The typical site of containers holding up an historic building surrounded by bollards and fence. 

Attempts to secure valuable buildings at the time, assumed to be temporary solutions, were still there all these years later. Many buildings boarded-up and obviously suffering not only the ravages of the earthquake damage, but also the effects of the weather, neglect and vandalism over subsequent years. 

One of the thousands of hand-written messages of support along the fences.

Why has it taken so long for anything to be done? Having spent over 3 years living in New Zealand now, I can confidently say this situation is perhaps the most symbolic of the problems within this society. These problems are complex, but lack of an ability towards decision-making, numerous committee-members and meetings and reluctance to embrace change are just the tip of the iceberg. Corruption is at the core of many authorities and without proper litigation, whistleblowers are rare and victimised for 'speaking out'. Organisations like Culturesafe NZ Ltd have many enlightening (and inspiring) stories to tell about the toxic NZ workplace. And I continue to be a writer-activist for social justice in this area too. 

Perhaps the most heartbreaking of all the aspects of Christchurch is the Cathedral - so central to the city's central precinct area and so conspicuous by it's ruined presence. 

Left to decay & out of bounds - a peep through the safety railings illustrates even the temporary steel support framework is no longer attached to the brickwork. The irrelevant Visitors' Centre signage still visible on the left.

Five years on and the cathedral continues to rot as each day goes by, and what can we do but hope and pray that those in charge of such things, finally take some action? 

The artwork tries to brighten-up the facade, but behind it, the truth cannot be hidden...

Globally of course, numerous other valuable buildings  - damaged through earthquake, flood or warzone - have been re-built  - sometimes brick-by-brick  - to be safer and stronger than before. But for some reason the bureaucracy here in NZ seems to always get in the way of progress. Very sad. In fact, such a sad depressing sight that some of the tourists around us that afternoon were sobbing after seeing the sorry sight and the heartbreaking messages of support from around the world. A somber mood as we watched the chess-players' concentration in the adjacent square.

To cheer ourselves up, we had a drink in the Old Government Buildings - one of the few old pieces of architecture left in the city centre. 

Justin enjoying a pint of local ale!

The OGB full of original features and interesting collections of artefacts...

Everywhere a building site with very little concern among the builders for the people walking about the area, trying to 'carry on regardless'. 

But the colourful tram network still struggles on - but sadly the guides are telling the tourists about what WAS there, rather than seeing for themselves what is:

Luckily for us, our friends Ernie & Diana at the campsite invited us to attend one of the events as part of the annual World Buskers Festival  - which was running during the week of our stay. I had heard about this informal collection of international performers from my friend, Jean. I was intrigued by the make-shift stages we'd seen earlier inside the quad of the University, on high street and in local taverns. 

One of the stages, inside the University's quad
which was still a building-site,
but apparently recently declared 'safe'...

So, for a small fee (our was $3) you can join-in to the fun and see live puppeteers, sword-and fire-swallowers, short plays, poets, comedians, dancers and gymnasts. 

Our evening was the 'Comedy Club' and thoroughly enjoyable entertainment.  

Later we saw some of the night-time acts, with good crowds and improvised singing along the way.

Message to the city-folk....

These impromptu events are like 'pop-up' market-stalls, illustrating the power of improvised art in a public space. Simple but effective and I only wish this kind of thing was more widely marketed. Another world-famous-in-New-Zealand kind of event - but one we will promote and hope to return to again.

View from my friend, Jean's house at the North side of the city.

Our three nights were up too soon and we had to move on. But I need to return to this city and understand it better. It has lots to offer, including some beautiful beaches we only caught glimpses of and those lovely views over the dry hills...