15th/16th March 2018

Greetings from Christchurch! What an exciting and inspiring city. We spent two whole days here, without having big plans beforehand. We just walked around and let ourselves drift a little. Here are our impressions.

15/03/2018: We arrived in Christchurch at noon and first dealt with some organizational matters regarding our last days here in New Zealand. We changed buses and hostels and realized that we will only have one night in each place after Christchurch and that there are still many long bus rides ahead of us. It will certainly be exhausting, but we still have two big highlights on the North Island before we head home from Auckland on the 22nd, so stay tuned! 😊 After the organizational part, we finally walked through the city on foot. We visited the botanical garden, walked along the river and various parks, and made stops at smaller cafes.

Christchurch is a very impressive but sadly underestimated city. Until 2011, it was New Zealand's second largest city, but then came the severe earthquake that claimed 185 lives and turned the entire city upside down. You might think that seven years should be enough to restore the city, but instead we were faced with a rather sad picture. Cranes are everywhere, many roads are closed due to construction work, and not all houses have been rebuilt yet. Nowadays, Christchurch is only the third largest city after Auckland and Wellington, followed by Queenstown, the fourth largest. Many people have moved away from Christchurch because they have lost a lot or have feared aftershocks. Why did this city still fascinate us? It is probably impossible to explain rationally, because it is mainly due to the atmosphere that surrounds the city and its inhabitants: Street art can be seen at every corner, such as painted ruins that reflect the perseverance and hope of the New Zealanders. You turn around a gray construction site and suddenly find yourself in a cute alley with small cafes. Wherever you look, you discover art of all kinds, and the people you meet are very friendly, almost as if they are making an effort to prove to everyone how beautiful it can be here. We were very impressed by that. For example, on a large wall there were glowing letters with the words: "Everything is going to be alright." This may all sound very cheesy and exaggerated, but it simply touched us deeply. Here are a few photos that can only partially capture what we experienced there: