Lyttleton

 

Last Weekend Aaron and I made our first journey through the tunnel that goes through the port hills and over to the harbour town of Lyttleton.  February’s quake had been centered very near to the port town and it was hit very hard.

As one woman we talked to in town told us… “We had 18 bars before the earthquake, and now we don’t even have one”.

Word on the street is that Lyttleton was pretty cool before the quakes.  Those 18 bars were a haven for Live Music and the relative affordability of the small town coupled with its accessibility to Christchurch made it the perfect place to pretend to live a world away.

The overall sense in Lyttleton now is that it is a town in recovery.  There was definitely a more prevalent sense of damage as we walked through town.  The oldest churches in canterbury were here and they are all gone.  Homes built into the hillside have either slid or are hanging by a thread.  I did not see any that hadn’t chosen to give up a few of their view windows for the sake of some extra plywood strengthening.  Even the Cemetary was closed off because the graves were sliding off the hill.

The close knit nature of the community meant the impacts were felt even more profoundly.   As we browsed in one of the (few) open shops we heard a man asking the shop keeper about particular people in need in the community.  We heard her talk of a woman, with two small children, whose husband had gone for a walk in the Port Hills that day and how she waited for him for hours but he never returned.  The impact to this little community has definitely been extreme.

But even after February, Lyttleton faired pretty well in terms of accessibility.  The town was only cut off from Christchurch for about 3 days while they inspected the tunnel which runs through the port hills and connects Christchurch to Lyttleton in under a 30 minute drive.

And so, the town is being reborn.  An empty lot in town has a sign sitting out that says “It doesn’t matter how slowly you go… as long as you don’t stop”.  The Community has made empty lots into impromptu parks and cafes.  We stopped at one such “pop-up” coffee shop that was entirely outdoors but made to look indoors. The open air space was decorated with found objects from the rubble such as window panes without glass. It all combined to make a quaint open air alley shop.

As Aaron and I sat in one of that temporary plazas, sipping our long blacks and staring at the blue waters of Lyttleton port, it was hard to imagine why one wouldn’t still want to live there.

What a difference a week makes!

A week ago I posted this photo of Site #5…

Here’s the same site one week later….

In fact the building was nothing but a pile of rubble by the time we went to the Cashel Mall opening on Sunday, the 29th.  It’s amazing to me how fast these brick buildings come down.

Also note that the other side of the Avon is now open to the public!  Cera’s also allowing people into the red zone through public bus tours for $1/head.  We’re hoping to get on one next weekend.

This weekend we’re getting out of town again. Off to Hanmer Springs Thermal Resort for some mountains and relaxation and hopefully fireworks! (Its Guy Fawkes Day tomorrow).

Gawkers and Shoppers the Opening of the Cashel “Pop-Up” Mall

The Cashel Street mall as viewed from above

I’m stationed at the Arts Centre Campus here at Christchurch.  Since starting there in September, I’ve seen a real resurgence of activity to this area of downtown.  What once were fairly empty streets have, week by week, seen an increasing number of pedestrians, tourists, and cars.  In particular the bridge of rememberance located over the Avon river at Cashel street has had a crowd of tourists gathered around it each day peering into the Red Zone.

So it was a big event in Christchurch this weekend when the area of the red zone just  across this bridge reopened to the public. The reason, “Re:Start an open-air “pop-up” mall, made entirely of shipping containers and located on a few of the empty sites  near Ballyntines. Ballyntines, the historical department store here in town, was also  going to open for the event in its original building.

It seemed like it was going to be the BIG event in Christchurch last weekend so I was

curious to check it out.  We headed over on Saturday afternoon just after the opening

ceremony was complete.  By the time we parked our cars at the arts center it was

apparent a lot of Christchurch residents had had the same idea.  It was easy to find our

way in by following the stream of people headed into the recently opened zone.

As we neared the area that had been in the red zone, you could tell that there were quite

a few people there more out of curiousity than anything.  There were cameras, video

recorders, and huddles of old ladies everywhere.  I saw more than a few clusters of

people staring at empty lots and beyond into the red zone  whispering about had been

there before.

For myself, not knowing what had been there before, I instead was able to absorb what

was there now.  And what is there is really cool. Brightly painted containers stacked

upon each other.  Each individual container housing a different business in a little

“pocket shop” some, made into cafes, had upper level outdoor seating areas where

people were relaxing with a glass of wine or a coffee.  I was happy to see that  they’d

worked to get the right businesses to fill the limited spaces, it was a mix of larger, more

mainstream shops and some of the small independent local favorites from before the

earthquake.

 To me, it was a glmpse into what downtown Christchurch had been before.  But

perhaps in a way it was condensed as if the best that downtown Christchurch had to

offer before the earthquakes was all accessible in one open air plaza.  There were

buskers—jugglers, unicycle riders, street musicians of all ages.  What struck me most

were the smiles on the faces of the people there. And I felt that perhaps the people of

Christchurch felt a sense of relief at finding something familiar again downtown.  I saw

quite a few  local merchants shaking hands with former customers.  And I overheard

those customers saying—“we’re so glad you’re back!”

 Link to The Press article here

The Cashel Street mall as viewed from above

8 sites for a year

Aaron and I are approaching two months of living in Christchurch.

Six weeks ago, only two weeks into our life in Christchurch, I took my camera on my lunch break and walked around the streets near the arts centre looking at the damage in Christchurch.  Earlier this week it occured to me that a lot was changing on those same sites I took those pictures.  The idea came to me to take pictures of the same sites, every six weeks or so for the time that I am living in Christchurch.  I’m hopeful this project will help illustrate the construction, deconstruction and repair going on in Christchurch.  I guess it’s hard to know til you get a few photos into it right?

I’ll be posting all these pictures into a flickr set on my site which you can link here.

And for those of you too lazy to pop over there, here are a few to wet your tastebuds.

I had know idea why they wanted bricks.

Rumor has it they are making it into an arts and crafts plaza with stalls in the shipping containers

This building was just starting demolition

The finishes have been stripped and the top 1 1/2 stories have been deconstructed.

The masonry structure of the Children’s Library is severely damaged

All that remains is an empty lot.

 

Youtube and the ChCh Earthquakes

in the last week two videos came to my attention.  The first is a self made youtube clip that first surfaced following the February earthquake.  It’s a parody of a split ends song “There’s a fraction too much Friction.  The song, called “Fraction Liquifaction” and gives you a good idea of the scale of the liquified soils that were around the Christchurch neighborhoods following the earthquakes.  It’s mostly cleaned up now but you can definitely still see signs of it.  The area where my buildings are and the neighborhood we live in didn’t see as much damage as this.

But the video also gives you a sense of the sort of spirit of the Christchurch people finding some humor in what was obviously a sureal disaster.

The second video is a video by a rapper Scribe.  Scribe was at the height of his popularity when I was last here in 2003 with his song “Not Many”.  Apparently since then he’s sort of fallen out of the limelight.  This remake of his hit song titled “Not Many Cities” is meant to be inspirational.  When I watch it it’s this strange mix of funny, extremely sad, and also borderline inappropriate.  But being shot mostly in the red zone it does give you a glimpse into the reality in there right now.  Enjoy…