We had a smooth crossing on the Interislander ferry (we got good discount with our Top 10 membership) from Wellington, North Island through the Cook Straits and Marlborough Sounds to Picton, South Island,
followed by a 5 hour Intercity bus ride down to Christchurch. We were last in Christchurch in 2009 and fell in love with this beautiful city, so it was heartbreaking to get our first sight of the centre after the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes – we could hardly recognise anything. There is still so much building work going on but from it all is rising some stunning new builds, gorgeous street art and the Cathedral in the centre is slowly being rebuilt – the strength and resilience of the people of Christchurch is amazing.
We ended up having a split visit as we couldn’t get accommodation the first week as, unbeknown to us, it was the Riccarton Cup week (harness racing). So we stayed 2 nights, then hired a car for 12 days and went off to explore the North of the island and then returned for a further 3 nights!
We took a day to simply walk the streets and the banks of the river Avon, admiring a family of Paradise ducks, watching the punts go by and listen to the clickity clack of the old trams which are back running.
Then, when we returned, we hopped on one of the 9 historic trams still running for an entertaining but informative trip around the centre and came across a couple of areas we hadn’t seen before.
Our tram was 102 years old.
We learnt more about the destructive nature of the earthquakes (90% of the old brick/stone buildings have been destroyed in the centre) and how building techniques have changed to try and quake proof them. There is now a height limit on new builds, but there are a couple of higher buildings that survived the quakes that can stay as they are deemed “quake proof.”
We jumped off to explore the Arts Centre, which used to be the university and was heavily damaged in the quakes. All the building are very Oxford / Cambridge esque, and they are still rebuilding, but they are beautiful.
Then, on for a walk in the Botanical Gardens – the rose garden looks and smells gorgeous at the moment.
Then, finally, we visited the Transitional Cathedral or Cardboard Cathedral as it is known – built in 44 weeks and 4 days, and yes, a huge amount is cardboard – it’s an amazing space and looks beautiful at night as the roof is polycarbonate sheets so the light shines through.
It’s been interesting seeing the city again after all these years and it has an exciting vibe about it with all the new projects going on so it was rather sad to say goodbye and jump on the bus to Picton for a night
before crossing back to North Island and a stop in Wellington before heading up to Auckland for the last couple of days in New Zealand.