The entire country of New Zealand sits on top of a fault line where the Australian Plate and Pacific Plate meet. This results in spectacular mountains, volcanoes, and hot springs, but it also causes devastating earthquakes. The city of Christchurch was essentially destroyed in February 2011 by one of the world's worst quakes in an urban area killing 185 people. Six months prior, the area was weakened by a 7.1 magnitude quake, and even though the February 2011 quake was only a 6.3, it did much more damage because it was a lot closer, just six miles away from city center. The draw to Christchurch these days is to see the ruble, the reconstruction, and the creativity of the community while it slowly rebuilds. On our way out to the Bank’s peninsula, we spent a day there.
Since it’s been five years since the last major earthquake, I expected the city to be back to business as usual, but that is not the case. As you walk around, there are entire city blocks that are still filled with crumbled remnants of the former structures. Some of the ruins have been cleaned up, leaving nothing but a parking lot in its place, and a few have active construction. It appears as though the rebuilding is incredibly slow, and the reason was explained that the efforts first had to focus on the utilities. The soil in the area is prone to “soil liquefaction” which, as it sounds, means that the movement from an earthquake makes it act like a liquid; not a great thing to have on a fault line. This is a contributing factor to why the quake was so bad, and you can imagine the impact to the underground utilities like water, sewage, and electricity. The community has come up with some clever ways to manage through the hard times. There was a contest for the most creative portable toilet and an outdoor movie theater powered from the electricity generated by the pedaling of stationary bikes of the viewers. There is a cathedral built from cardboard, and local businesses joined together to make a shopping area out of shipping containers. It is a really cool area which I think will stick around long after the city has been completely rebuilt.
The container mall with retail shops set up inside of shipping containers.
Just past Christchurch is the Banks Peninsula. It is a gorgeous stretch of land cut into by numerous bays. As I mentioned in a previous post, this is where we were supposed to swim with dolphins, but they were not interested. This area wasn’t a total bust however. We had great weather, which we have learned to really appreciate. We camped at one of my favorite spots so far, on a farm looking down on a beautiful blue bay. What made this place special was how quiet and remote it was. This was just a field, or actually more like a sheep pasture. We did a few short hikes right from our campsite, and explored some beaches devoid of other people. With all of the ruined buildings, Christchurch seems like a pretty sad place, but it is worth a quick visit on the way to the beautiful Bank's Peninsula.
Sorry for repeating an image from a previous post, but this one captures our stay at the farm on Bank's Peninsula perfectly.
Farmland meets the ocean at the Bank's Peninsula.
- Jake