Christchurch

After a very unhealthy, but o so yummy breakfast (homemade pancakes and fresh cookies), we walked till the Botanical Garden where we took a shuttle to the gondola. What an amazing view, this was so worth it! Wim was very happy and wanted to do more mountain hiking. I took the gondola back and was just in time for my guided tour at 13h00.
Our guide, Caroline, was a 75 year old, energetic lady who survived several earthquakes. We were a group of six (2 older ladies from Virginia, 2 nice guys from Canada and a Frenchman)
Caroline first told us a bit about the history of New Zealand. We visited the museum, saw the Botanical Garden and then hit the city. It’s unimaginable that this was once a lively city. In 2011 Christchurch was hit with the biggest earthquake ever. (6.3 on the scale of Richter). It was at 13h00, so many people outside and 185 of them were killed. Because this time the earth did not only shake from right to left, but also from top to bottom, a lot of buildings were torn from their foundations. The insurance companies are paying billions to reconstruct the houses, hotels, buildings, shops, churches, gentlemen’s clubs…but it has already taken more than 5 years and Christchurch is still a bit of a ghost town.
Thanks to some artists and people with innovative ideas, murals and street art give the city back some color. The shopping area is now made out of colorful containers. We also visited a ‘private boys’ boarding school (30.000 euro/year) that looked a bit like ‘Zweinstein’, the school out of the ‘Harry Potter’ movie. Boys can choose as second language Maori or Mandarin. And besides rugby and soccer, they also do country golf. I’m sure that my son would love it.
After the lovely 3 hour walking tour, we left Christchurch and are on our way to Auckland.
And although ChCh, as the locals call it, was a bit of a ghost town, it’s the smile and the good heart and spirit of the people that make visiting Christchurch worthwile.