After enjoying the longer overnight stay in Queenstown, we eventually continued to Christchurch, the so-called 'most British city' of New Zealand, which can still be seen in the architectural style of the buildings. Christchurch is the second largest city in New Zealand (approx. 350,000 inhabitants), according to oral traditions of the indigenous people, the first people lived here around 1000 AD, it is also the oldest city in the country!
Unfortunately, the city is best known for the devastating earthquakes in 2010 with a magnitude of 7.1 and in 2011 with a magnitude of 6.3. The latter claimed 185 lives and caused much greater damage than the first one. Within a week, approximately 70,000 people left the city, but many could not 'flee' because they could not access important documents and their personal belongings. It took a long time for clearance and reconstruction to be allowed, and when we were there, we could still clearly see the traces of the tragic earthquake. For us, who do not really live with the danger of earthquakes in Germany, it was very shocking to hear and see with our own eyes what the earthquake had caused years ago and how long the rebuilding process really is.
Reconstruction of the church
As you can see in the pictures, we were very lucky with the weather and it was gradually getting warmer! We enjoyed our first day in the city with sushi for lunch and after the city tour on our own, we went to the botanical gardens in the early evening, which were located right next to our hostel.
