Christchurch + 3 Weeks

Appearance is everything

The hot, dry conditions have persisted and the daily requirement of slapping on sun protection has become routine. My lower legs however refuse to change colour. Even the brave decision of going from the Nivea Factor 50 (Dulux Brilliant White masonary paint) to Factor 20 ( B&Q White emulsion) has made little difference. I don't suppose having "bronzed" lower legs and arms would go with Ribeeny-red neck and face, topped with a white baldy head. Actually I should know better as when I lived and worked in Saudi Arabia, I soon discovered when mixing with other expats at barbies and the occasional party I always stood out as though I'd just arrived from Sweden in need of a blood transfusion - though at least I still had my hair.

Actually my low self-esteem has taken a battering anyway when I made the mistake of letting Katie take some photographs in Lyttleton a few weeks ago. As you can see from the photo below its a "shot from the rear" and I happened to be next to a gentleman with rather large calfs. When I downloaded that batch I couldn't believe it was me - I blamed the hat hiding my neck (I do have a neck) but Carole (ever positive about my appearance) said I did tend to stoop these days. Katie called me her favourite hunchback - that's a hunchback-handed compliment (Ha Ha).

Anyway I now know I look worse from the back than I do from the front and not many people I know can say that about themselves! In fact for all of my drinking friends it's definitely the other way round.

Carole has turned a lovely brown apart from her legs but if Saudi is anything to go by it is just a matter of time. Her biggest problem has been staying on her feet. Though her mobility has started to improve she has taken a couple of falls with resulting accentuated bruising caused by her array of medicaments.

NZ - A Theme Park waiting to happen?

I am not sure this heading is really fair but I do get the feeling (mainly in the wallet) that NZ is heading towards a situation where the air-fares, high as they are, will not be the determining factor in deciding whether a holiday is affordable.

Prices are crazy and the currency for some reason is as strong as that of an oil-rich state. I won't bore you with price comparisons but they would certainly put most people off. Unfortunately, the Hotel/B&B situation here in Christchurch is totally skewed by the number of quake victims (whose homes are still in insurance limbo)taking up all/most spare capacity and profiteering in this sector apparently thrives (Yes it happens here as well!). On a personal level we could not stay for anything like the intended duration if it were not for Cath & Pauls' hospitality.

According to the lady who runs the Art Gallery shop (Art Gallery closed for another couple of years because the foundations under the centre of the complex have gone)the economy is booming because of an extremely strong Dairy and Meat export market, well lets hope and pray it remains intact and free of all the diseases that beset Europe time and again.

In spite of strong currency, seemingly swarms of visitors (from cruise ships anyway), accelerated rebuild programme, incredible "can do" attitude in city's retail sector (Container Mall), both Carole & I were extremely disappointed when visiting the re-opened Museum recently. When you enter, there is a clear-plastic drop-in box and a polite sign suggesting a donation of $5 (Adult) $2 (Child), we put $5 between us and gave the grandkids a dollar each. Just a short distance into the displays you are then confronted by the entrance to the Scott exhibition (the only new feature) which costs $15 and $8 respectively to get in. A bit of a cheek!

Theme Park equals the NZ experience high-jacked by the package tour industry - god forbid.

End of whinge. Now some photos:-

Kite-Flying in New Brighton Sunday 27 Jan

Visit to Botanic Gardens ChCh city centre Monday 28 Jan

Akaroa

Akaroa is a harbour town lying on the opposite side of the Banks peninsula to the Port of Lyttleton which is adjacent to Sumner. It was actually colonised by a shipload of French immigrants in about 1840 who were blissfully unaware that only days earlier the Treaty of Waitangi had been signed and New Zealand was a British Colony. Conflict was avoided by "the diplomacy of the officials" (Van Rumpy Pumpy perhaps?)and Akaroa developed and maintained a unique French flavour to this day.

Many of the street names are French and in amusing reminder of its "frenchness", when we were in a shop to buy the girls a little polished bloodstone ($2.30 each)the customer before us must have mentioned "the French connection" and the lady said "Do yo speek Freench?" , "A little" the man (who I soon found out was a kiwi from Nottingham) said sheepishly, "Parlez-vous Frincais" she replied in a totally Kiwi accent, "Oui" he said hesitatingly at which she asked him in English if he was from Australia, you know the rest......

Akaroa has a population of about 600 but that day it seemed more like 6000 as a Cruise Ship was in the Port. I have never seen so many old people with cameras in all my life - and that was just the American contingent. The next dominant ethnic group appeared to be the Chinesey types mostly with cameras but either younger or ageing better. The cruisers were walking around in groups of 4/6 and thus crowding out most of the shops and restaurants - Paul did well in getting us a table at L'Hotel de something and we had a great meal.

As many of my friends know, to avoid flying I foolishly thought a cruise to NZ would be affordable....well I don't think we could survive a journey with all the other passengers looking and sounding like Jack Benny or one of the Golden Girls. Note this does not include Kevin & Sheila nor my cousins Colin & Bernadette who are experienced though not ancient mariners.

We left for Sumner about 2.30pm with Paul electing to go the "mountain route" which in this case meant the outside lane of a twisting and tortuous series of hairpin bends with mountain on one side and generally a 1000' drop on the other. Needless to say I was quiet until we reached our ice-cream stop on the flat - The Blue Duck Cafe.

William, the weether and a wobble

William

I forgot to mention that our first visit to Christchurch coincided with the visit of William Hague who was there to endorse a British sales push.

We came upon the assembled greats as we wondered past the art gallery which is closed to the public at present. The mission also launched a car rally from somewhere North to Christchurch. The rally, which will involve British Cars past and present,is planned to finish on February 22 2013 - exactly 2 years since the last devastating earthquake.

The 100 or so people were gathered around a dozen or so classic British cars complete with owners and WH was mingling and doing his bit. I decided to take a closer look while Carole, Cath and the girls lingered about 10m back. As the main party assembled around the microphones I edged a little further forward to take a photo (below). Just as the UK's High Commissioner was about to speak the sound of broken glass shattered the pre-speech quiet and everyone turned not knowing what to expect (a ham-fisted jihadist bottle juggler perhaps?) only to see Carole moving the girls away from the glass from a coke bottle which Hannah, who has a thing about keeping glass bottles from which she has just drank, had dropped on the pavement.

Order restored listened to WH speech (supportive of ChCh's efforts to rebuild - and don't forget British companies stand ready to help etc. etc......

We decided to head for the Museum but stopped to get ice-creams and drinks (more ammunition for Hannah)

The Weether

Apart from a few wash-outs, the weether has been really hot - as the forecaster said on TV last night " tonight will be a duvet-keeking tweenty with teemperatures tomorrow reeching tweenty nine" (A patheetic atteempt at nz phonetic speeek)

However you say it,the weether was brilliant for our two days in Akaroa. We spent the first day at C&P's friend's Bach located at Takamatua a mile or so from Akaroa. A Bach is a name now given to a holiday cottage or cabin - the name comes from Bachelor Pad as in the early days such small, rough buildings were used to house travelling male workers.

This Bach had all the comforts and equipment you would wish for being only 4m from the high water mark but lacked the TLC which the owner has been unable to give owing to illness.

It isn't a big place and Cath & Paul had to sleep in the rafters (posh people call it a mezzanine floor). We had the only bedroom with the kids sleeping on couches etc. in the main room. There was a small kitchen and one of those metal incinerator-loos that requires the insertion of a shaped paper bag before you make a deposit, close the seat and press the destruct button......

We had a nice time in the Bach; had a great barbeque on the first day, tried some fishless fishing and left on Day 2 with Paul & I thinking we had escaped without any midge bites!


The Wobble

About tea-time on the first day we all felt a slight shake - just as I write this (3pm Wed 23 January)in Sumner the Tsunami Alarm is sounding but after a walk outside I can still hear the sound of tradesmen working across the street so I trust it was a test famous last words - anyway it turns out it was a magnitude 4.6 which was felt really badly in Sumner. What luck!

Christchurch - damaged but not broken

After a few days getting over the jet lag and settling into Cath & Paulls' place,we extended our range beyond Sumner and visited Lyttleton Port, Shirley (a suburb of ChCH) , Christchurch centre and Akaroa. Of these, Akaroa is the only place probably outside the damage-likely zone of the recent earthquakes,although the devastating quake of February 2011 was felt well beyond Akaroa.

Closer to home, damage outside the city centre appears random - indeed if you were driven through the suburbs and happened to be wearing sun-glasses you may not notice the many damaged and written-off properties. Sun-glasses or not you would notice the undulating ride on most roads caused by liquefaction damage and necessary repairs to drains and services.Some pictures of ChCh centre;

The remains of the city's cathedral can just be seen in the distance;

A container village has been created to keep the feeling of business as usual and give some continuity to those who depended on working in and visiting the essentially flattened centre.

Journey to Christchurch

Journey started off with the realisation that we had in fact booked 2 Standard tickets on the Manchester train rather than First Class Carole thought she had secured at an unbelievable price (now entirely believable). The guard very kindly offered us free upgrades but we decided to sit tight as our 2 x 20kgs were by then firmly wedged under other cases.


Flight to Singapore great,Transit hotel a godsend even though we probably only had around three hours sleep. In no time we were bombing our way toward Christchurch. Passage smooth as until we emerged from over the Southern Alps above Canterbury Plain. I must admit that I do spend about 50% of my conscious flying time peering at the aircraft route/position screen, therefore I was aware that at this time we had a tail wind of 150km/hr. Coincidentally the Pilot warned of turbulence ahead and within 20 seconds of that understatement the plane dropped rapidly producing a few short-lived screams.It was obvious it was going to be a tricky landing as we made our first approach with wings dipping as the Pilot attempted to line up. It was actually no surprise when he aborted with the words " turbulence has made it necessary for us to try an alternative approach". The plane did another circuit and touched down quite hard with the brakes applied so firmly that it skewed violently before straightening. The friendly customs lady explained that conditions had forced the aircraft to land on the "short" runway so it's always hairy with a NWesterly - that's alright then!
Conditions in Christchurch hot and blustery.


We passed through the Passport checky bit and proceeded to the luggage collection hall with our coats and hand luggage. Carole's bladder, recognising that a proper toilet was available, immediately flipped into must-go-now mode forcing me to find a parking spot for our trolley. Setting the trolley against a pillar with one of those plastic brochure holders prompted me to bend forward and head butt said holder taking off the usual half a square inch of scalp. "Its nothing" Carole said, meaning it was actually a grotesque open wound on an otherwise featureless baldy wilderness.

Collecting our main bags we joined the X-ray queue and owing to the Chemist shop quantity of tablets in Carole's case we were pulled to one side (That's what I was saying anyway). For a change I was wrong and after a rescan we were free to go and meet Cath and the girls waiting in arrivals.