14 August 2013
What did we do today?
We decided to go for a walk through Hagley Park along the
riverbank. It is lovely and peaceful there and you can almost forget about the
earthquakes...
– apart from the cracks in the bridges and the road works on the
other side of the river.
(It’s a shame they’re going to spoil part of it by building
stadiums for the cricket ground for the world cup.)
Carl was saying yesterday
that because of the road works he never knows from one day to the next which
way he was going to be driving. At one point he was following a route that he’d
planned to avoid the disruption, when he discovered that the route he was going
to take was blocked by, you guessed it, road works. A guy in Christchurch
Museum said that he’d heard that they were going to reach their peak in (I
think) 2015. If this isn’t the peak, I hope I’m not here when it happens! And
we walk everywhere!!
While I’m mentioning Carl, a few other things he mentioned
yesterday. I hope I haven’t already mentioned them.
1)
The Port Hills rose one metre in the quakes.
2)
He heard a story from the day before/a couple of days before the 4th
September ‘quake. An American couple were enjoying the punting on the River
Avon. Suddenly the man says to the guy punting – “You’re going to have a big
earthquake soon.”
“I doubt it,” responds the Punter. “We never have earthquakes.”
“You are now,” his passenger told him. “See those bubbles rising up through the water? That’s a sign that pressure is building up below ground…”
“I doubt it,” responds the Punter. “We never have earthquakes.”
“You are now,” his passenger told him. “See those bubbles rising up through the water? That’s a sign that pressure is building up below ground…”
3)
The first, September, earthquake’s fault line ran from Rolleston to
Greendale and initially scientists called it the Rolleston fault. But the local
body politicians and developers who were trying to make Rolleston sound like a
great place to live, decided that having an active fault named after the area
wasn’t so great, so they said to the seismologists: “No one lives at Greendale.
Why don’t you call it that?”
So they did.
So they did.
4)
There was an area called “Swampvale” or something similar and some
developers thought it would be a great place to build their soulless boxes, so
they applied for building consent. The local council turned them down, and the
name should give you an idea why. But the developers went to the environment
court and won the right to build in this area called “Swampvale”.
One week later “Swampvale” was sinking into earthquake-made liquefaction and all the developers were up in arms over the money they’d lost. Now they’re talking of building in the zone called Marshlands…
Obviously developers have the same IQ as politicians.
One week later “Swampvale” was sinking into earthquake-made liquefaction and all the developers were up in arms over the money they’d lost. Now they’re talking of building in the zone called Marshlands…
Obviously developers have the same IQ as politicians.
5)
Carl obviously works as a tour guide and he was taking a group of
international seismologists around on the 15th February 2011, led by
a prominent New Zealand seismologist. Carl asked him if there was any chance of
another big quake. The scientist told him that there was no chance… Of course
they didn’t know about the fault that was going to rupture exactly one week
later…
It was a lovely day, not too hot and not too cold, so we just
wandered along the river and watched the dogs play and the joggers jog (some
with more dedication than others.) We saw the pond yachts sailing on the pond
and the ducks swim down the Avon. Then we turned into the botanic gardens and called
into their information office. We both bought some lip salve, which’ll
hopefully stop our lips from drying out so much.
Then we went for a wander.
Being “winter” there aren’t too many flowering plants about, although
we did find some crocuses and pansies (but no daffodils to speak of.) However
we did manage to find the Cork Oak that we search out each time we visit.
Sequoia - redwood |
Sequoia |
Cork Oak |
It's pink! |
A few steps on and we were at the rear of the museum so we went
inside and had lunch upstairs looking out over the gardens and the Art Centre.
The museum’s free, but they suggest that you give a $5.00 donation,
which we were glad to do. We also left our bags and jackets behind, which made the
afternoon much more comfortable.
About the only evidence of the earthquakes that we saw was the
broken statue of Sir Robert Falcon Scott, and that had been standing outside somewhere
prior to the quakes. There were also a few cards about where exhibits had been
removed for repair due to the earthquakes.
We saw the Paua House, which was pure Kiwi Kitch. (We stood for the
national anthem at the beginning of a short film about Fred and Myrtle Flutey,
and the only other couple of people copied us, assuming rightly that it was one
of New Zealand’s anthems.
The Antarctic Exhibition is always very interesting. Of course
Christchurch is the stepping off point for both the New Zealand and American
teams heading off to their respective bases in Antarctica.
Tractor that Sir Edmund Hillary used to get to the South Pole |
Before we left we were talking to one of the staff (he got us our
bags) and he was saying that there are over 150,000 exhibits and only about 200
were damaged in some way. (My numbers are probably slightly out.) He said that
a few years ago practically all the soft foundations under the building had
been hollowed out and that tonnes of concrete had been pumped in. That was what
had saved the building and the exhibits during the quakes. During the February
one everyone inside made a dash for outside, despite the staff saying that they
were relatively safe. In fact outside all the slates were sliding off the room
of Christ’s College next door and flying through the air like Frisbees. He also
said that if the shaking had gone on for another six seconds, the Art Centre over
the road would have collapsed. Fortunately they are repairing and strengthening
it now.
We said how the staff must have dreaded checking the exhibits,
especially the fragile items like the china. He said yes, but that going
through those evens made him re-evaluate things in his life. His material possessions
that were damaged didn’t matter. What mattered was that the people close to him
were safe. He said that, what you didn’t hear about, 1000s of people were
injured in the quakes.
The museum was closing at that time and we were practically kicked
out, so we walked back along the banks of the Avon. As we still had half of
D.C.’s meal from last night to tea tonight, we stopped off and got some Thai
from the Thai Container shop. It’s a restaurant made up of a caravan (the sales
window) and a container (the kitchen). The food was very nice.
D.C.'s photos
Carved from ivory |
Museum |
Arts Centre |
Christ's College |
Sunset over Hagley Park |
Female Paradise Shellduck - not zoomed or cropped |
Knox Church |
For Donna |
We've tried not to take photos of homes, but this is the owner's comment about the above property. |
Sounds like you are having fun, brings back heaps of memories. And the photos are amazing! From Sophie Mischefski! :D
ReplyDeleteLooks like you are having fun! It brings back so many memories, the Sophie signs are extra cool, and the photos are Amazing :D From Sophie Mischefski.
ReplyDelete