Christchurch

A day on the trams. We are staying right by the first tram stop. The first tram we had was 100 years old last year and from Christchurch.

The city seemed hugely overshadowed by the earthquakes of 2011, with most buildings having either been taken down to rebuild, been rebuilt, or being made safe.

We had wondered why some car parks were gravel, to discover these are where buildings have been taken down.

The February 2011 earthquake hit the city the hardest of the four, in which two buildings actually fell and 185 were killed. Interestingly, there is a question over whether the two buildings should have been condemned, so they are probably now more cautious.

The cathedral has only just had work started on it. Princess Anne recently visited to consecrate the new memorial, only it’s not quite finished!

The temporary cathedral aka cardboard cathedral was really quite impressive.

The botanic gardens were a lovely place for a stroll, and had the best rose garden.

This chair and otto had been made with people’s broken crockery to mark the earthquakes.

The quake museum was very interesting, explaining the concept and effect of liquefaction, which actually ruined more properties than the shaking, and the new construct basis of isolation so that buildings move separately from the ground.

Other problems caused by the earthquake included brewery that lost power so the beer fermented for longer than normal, creating a much stronger beer.

Memorial to those that died and the injured.

In true British style, of course, a little punting

Very good of Francis to nip back down south to punt for us! 🤣

The Canterbury Museum is currently closed and will be refurbished. They emptied all the displays and it is currently home to a street art exhibition. Very unique and slightly odd but certainly enjoyable!

You can see this guy is now clamped on his pedestal. Apparently, he fell off in the earthquake, and it was two days before they found his head!

Dinner was a stumble on Sakimoto Japanese Bistro by the tram station. What amazing food! Edamame beans, gobo chips, kara-age chicken, deepfried eggplant in a sweet miso sauce, tuna sushi roll, angus beef tataki, and top marks on the allergy too!