At 3.30 am we are woken by a thunderous roar and sharp jagged tremors. A quake far different from the rolling ones we get in Gisborne. There is a period of time when the whole house lies nervously awake , waiting. ....
Mid morning we head out with Dave and Chris for our Christchurch EARTHQUAKE tour. I guess I had expected that the roads might have been organised by now... 5 years after the big quake but there are red cones all over the place and many detours.
Some new boxy buildings have appeared but generally the building progress seems chaotic. We see the CCTV building memorial with the list of those killed including Paul Dunlop (optometrist ) and Trish Stevenson (Anna's friend). We see the white chair memorial and then visit the cardboard Cathedral. Ìt is simple and beautiful. In contrast the old Cathedral is dilapidated, scarred and ugly. We saw the container shops and had lunch in one. We visited the cleared site where Dale's practice used to be. But our overall impression is that the city is scarred and tragic.
A trip to Ballentine is oddly reassuring and we are able to get pods for Duncan's coffee machine.
We drive out to Sumner where houses have basically fallen down the cliffs or had to be removed before they did move. Then we wend our way through the Red Zone near Bexley. Friends have told Dave and Chris that their property sunk 1.78m and is below sea-level but with banks stopping the influx of the water.
The trip home is frustrated by road closures and red cones. Anne has made dinner for us and Dave brings out a Chateau Lynch Bates Pauillac which he has bought for $50 en primeur. When we Google it , it's present day value is $594.07!! Very delicious. Liz arrives around with her fiance and the new engagement ring. Andy has been the Project Manager for the Margaret Mahy playground which we also saw today.
Hope you can sort out the pictures below as I can't get captions on them at present
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