Christchurch

I had one and a half days in Christchurch before I could pick Markus up at the airport. I spent the first day tidying up the car and running some last-minute errands so we could set off right after Markus's arrival. At the Christchurch Farmer's Market in Riccarton Bush, I bought everything for a picnic - except for the baguette, which was handed to me with the odd comment, 'Merry Christmas'.

Riccarton Bush is a small city park that includes Deans Cottage, the oldest building in Canterbury, and Riccarton House, an extravagant Victorian villa. There’s also a forest protected by a predator-proof fence, home to several 500-year-old Kahikatea trees that reach up to 25 meters in height. It is essentially the last piece of primeval forest that survived in this region.

From Riccarton Bush, I walked through the Botanical Gardens to the city center and across the Bridge of Remembrance, had something to eat at the Riverside Market, and then walked past ChristChurch Cathedral to the Transitional Cathedral. There, I sat on the grass at Latimer Square and had a brief phone call with Markus while he was waiting for his flight from Frankfurt to Dubai.

I had booked a city tour for the next morning before picking up Markus at the airport at 2 PM. Kim guided us to several places in the city center that survived the earthquake in 2011 or were rebuilt since then, sharing her own experiences along the way.

After there hadn't been any significant earthquakes in the Christchurch area during the second half of the 20th century, no one was prepared for the earthquake on September 4, 2010, which registered as a 7.1 on the Richter scale. Thankfully, only a few chimneys collapsed, and nobody died. After this earthquake, there were several smaller tremors until a larger earthquake with a magnitude of 6.3 struck on February 22, 2011. While it was weaker than the quake that had occurred about half a year before, the epicenter was not as deep below the surface and only 6.7 km away. Almost the entire city center was destroyed, 185 people died, and more than 7,000 were injured. For the next two years, a 3-square-kilometer cordoned-off area was established in the city center to demolish buildings and make roads usable again. Some structures were completely rebuilt, others restored, but this project is still far from finished today. The most well-known unfinished project is the reconstruction of ChristChurch Cathedral in the center of the city - here, there are ongoing issues with financing.

Kim shared that she and many others were too afraid to return to their homes after the devastating earthquake in 2011. She, her family, and neighbors came together, gathered all the camping gear they had, and set up tents on an empty piece of land. They lived this way for weeks until they gradually returned to their homes.

Furthermore, Kim pointed out the other tragedies that befell Christchurch following the earthquakes. In 2017, a large fire broke out during which a helicopter pilot died while fighting the fire, many homes were destroyed or damaged, and hundreds of residents had to be evacuated. In 2019, there was a terrorist attack on two mosques, resulting in 51 fatalities and another 50 injuries.

All these tragic events need to be processed in some way, and you can find small messages of encouragement scattered throughout the city center: at the Christchurch Art Gallery, the phrase 'Everything is going to be ok' is prominently displayed, street art can be discovered on various buildings, and at the Dance-O-Mat, a decommissioned washing machine, you can connect your phone via Bluetooth, play music, and follow the rhythm on the dance floor.

What I also didn't know until the city tour but find very cool: New Zealand was the first country in the world to grant women the (initially only passive) right to vote in 1893 (the active women's suffrage followed in 1919).

Then I only had time for a quick lunch before heading to the airport, where Markus landed '11 minutes early' despite a delayed departure from Frankfurt. After a brief introduction with the car, our shared journey could finally begin.