Last Day - Christchurch

Having packed everything and sorted out the van (why did we buy some of those things?) we left Akaroa for our final journey in the campervan. It's took less than a couple of hours to drive to the drop off point near Christchurch and we were at our hotel before midday. The hotel is within walking distance of what is left of the centre of Christchurch and the sun is still shining, so we have been moseying around. 

We had to walk through the Botanical Gardens, which were lovely, and very English. 

The large glass house in the background was closed because of the earthquake, as are many buildings, but there were plenty of plastic temporary green houses nearby. We spotted this beautiful butterfly in the dahlia beds.

The stream is called the Avon 

and streets were named after English cities - Worcester, Gloucester, Manchester etc. Very English after the French influence in Akaroa. We visited the Cathedral which we all saw on the news only to find two groups of protestors - National Front and anti-National Front - shouting very politely at each other watched by more tourists and police than there were protestors! 

This is the original Cathedral which will remain closed for some time. It is thought to be so unsafe that they have used drones to survey the inside. 

And here is the inside of the famous 'cardboard' Cathedral which was quite impressive but not, by any means, all cardboard.

Behind the cathedral are 185 white chairs to remember those who died in the earthquake

This is not an original idea, but is was very poignant. Even more so were the stories told by individuals for a film in Quake City, a small centre set up at the Re-Start centre by Christchurch Museum to explain the reasons and history of earthquakes in the city. These were very emotional. There are also detailed accounts of the 2010 and the much worse 2011 quake which destroyed the central business district. There are great plans to rebuild, but this will be a long process and in the meantime everywhere you look are sights like these..

with bollards, diggers, containers and chain link panels rapidly becoming the city's icons.

We had lunch in 'container city' and wandered around the shops there, but this is really an area designed to give tourists something to do. I'm not sure it will go a long way towards regeneration.

As everyone told us, Christchurch is a sad place, but if the plans to rebuild come to fruition it will be fantastic. We'll have to come back and check it out in a few years time. One more sleep before we get on the plane home.