My dear, sweet, wonderful friends drove me the five-and-a-half hours from Dunedin to Christchurch so I could pick up a rental car from a company that they recommended (which has not yet expanded down to Dunedin, sadly) for a mini-road trip adventure up to Wellington. I spent Sunday afternoon wandering around Christchurch, taking pictures. Christchurch is still recovering from two major earthquakes that hit within a few months of each other, a 7.1 that hit in 2010, and a 6.3 that hit in 2011 that took out a great deal of downtown. A lot of beautiful buildings were destroyed, many more are still being restored (apparently 1,000 buildings were lost in the central business district). I wish that I could have seen the city before the quakes. But the city is still thriving, and there is great spirit of optimism and ingenuity.
The street art is fantastic here, too.
This is my favorite piece. If it isn't clear from the picture, it's several stories tall.
"Whare" means home in Maori. This installation is next to the Cathedral in the center of town that was devastated by the second earthquake. Restoration projects are still ongoing, but I thought this was a beautiful way to provide a viewing platform.
This is one of the few buildings that was largely undamaged by the quakes, the former government building, now a boutique hotel:
I found this peeking out of one of the buildings in the Arts District:
Regent Street, a block of shops built in 1932, was largely untouched. It was a bit like a street in Disneyland:
Close up of the tile on the columns:
A shipping container mall has popped up in place of the old one, which had to be torn down:
As a fundraiser, artists have decorated giraffes around the city, which will be sold off next year to help fund restoration efforts.
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