There is no arguement that first impressions are judgemental and unfortunately hard to change, and for Christchurch mine was not the best. Road closures, big empty hardcore lots in the city centre and fenced off buildings looking poised to fall down any minute. Driving through and an early evening walk around the city centre was the time I had to collect for my first impression, and for a city, I guess it's the equivalent of glancing over the cover of a book and maybe a skim read of the back.
Thank goodness for that second day and another chance!
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| The damage to the Cathedral |
There's no getting round the fact that Christchurch is in a transitional stage and that this stage will last a long time, but for the quick visitor or backpacker, this is a city to experience. We spent two days exploring the city and this could have easily been turned into more if we didn't have a date to be somewhere else. Although there are numerous sites where a previous building has been demolished and awaiting a new project, the council have put in temporary art installations. These range from three story grafitti murals to 185 white seats to mark all the people who perished in the earthquakes. A recommended trip to Canterbury musuem, was well worth the free entry and we spent so long wandering through the Maori, Antarctic, bird and other exhibits we missed a chat at the ICE festival we were keen to attend.
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| Large mural |
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| 185 white chairs facing the new cardboard cathedral, to commemorate the lives lost |
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| Head stand on road block sheep |
Our time in chirstchurch fell at the same time as the ICE festival and something we had no idea existed, until we were walking straight into it in the centre of town. It's to celebrate the first summer flights to Antarctic and the start of the scientific season down there. There were loads of free talks about everything icy, live music, outdoor films and on the 4th there was even the chance to walk through some of the planes that were flying down south in the days to follow.
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| Flags at ICE festival |
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| Shops made out of shipping containers |
Our tourist-o-meter spiked through the roof, when Lucy was picked to help a street performer complete his act in front of a 'large' crowd at the Antarctic centre. I have no idea the population of Christchurch or of New Zealand but, if that was a big crowd I would hate to see a small crowd! Anyway the guy was very entertaining and had Lucy throwing a skittle on fire, a knife and spanner at him whilst he was on top of a 7 foot unicycle, and if that wasn't enough weird for her, to finish it off, she used a leaf blower to style his mullet whilst he juggled....
After all the werid and wonderful tourist shenanigans, it's time to move on to Peel Forest for some volunteering and after viewing some used cars we decided to stick to the buses, unless a cracker of a deal crosses our path.
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| 'Damn tourist' |
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| Funky sculpture |
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| Moa skeleton, in the Canterbury museum |
