The earthquakes and the aftermath remain number one topic in town.
It is about the Red Zone where business owners are still prohibited from entering, where time stands still. Where Shop owners get upset while running out of insurance money. It is about the cancellation of Christchurch as a rugby hosting city. Fair enough because there are currently other problems.
It is about portaloos, where in some suburbs residents still go on the toilet. Is it yellow let it mellow, is it brown flush it down says a signage in a shopping mall toilet.
It is about the relocation of businesses from the centre in the suburbs, Huntley Lodge for example has generated a lot of business through that process.
It is about Riccarton and Merryvale which turned into the new hubs for people to commute and recreate.
It is about expanding the Liquor Ban area because people spend their evenings more and more in areas where residents get disturbed.
These are only few examples which indicate that the city is far away from normal.
However, the process has begun that more and more people think about the rebuild of their town. The public is involved in this this, which is a good sign to make sure that everyone takes part, but it will take a long time.
My opinion is that Christchurch should focus on it's brand as The Garden City. Cars should be banned from the inner city, and not as before causing gridlock throughout the CBD. Pedestrian zones should become the major part and not as before only on worchester boulevard and cashel mall, why not turn High Street, Manchester Street and Columbo Street into car free zones as well. People who want to come can park in various carparks which are already located around the centre. Imagine the square only disturbed by the rattling of historic trams and north Columbo street becomes an alley framed by Victoria Park and Avon River, The Convention Centre, The Casino and maybe another Hotel as well as perhaps an opera house. The four ring roads remain as to get traffic fast around and not as before be interrupted by countless intersections with traffic lights bringing cars to a halt permanently.
And why not knocking down some heritage buildings which are too weak and dangerous to access and just rebuild them old style with modern building codes?
It is certain, the whole process will take up to ten years and hopefully the city will be better and prettier than before. I'll be back then to visit what has changed. In the meanwhile I wish Christchurch and it's lovely people all the best.
See you
Thursday, 9 June 2011
Saturday, 5 March 2011
Shaken, not stirred
Christchurch the garden city, home for almost 400.000 residents and destination for many tourists each year-the beautiful and vibrant city has come to a standstill.
A dust cloud lies over the Canterbury plains, liquefaction turns roads into big silt pools, buildings tumble down, cars jump forwards and backwards, sirens go off and panic spreads everywhere.
It becomes clear, the new approximately 25 seconds lasting tremor would have caused significant damage turning Christchurch into a state of emergency. Since the earth moved so violently at lunchtime where the CBD would have been packed with commuters and tourists. Hopefully these people would have had a chance to escape.
However, what had turned out relatively lucky in september has now ended in disaster. I can only say that we were extremely lucky.
At this side of the city, although we did get the full force of the waves, we never lost power nor water, we managed to keep the business running, we didn't loose friends or family members. We were really fortunate that our old "lady", which was built to sway, stood strong. Not bad for a 135 year old building, aye? However, glasses smashed, crockery came flying off the shelves and bottles in the bar and wine cellar fell over. The noise and the rattling of walls and ceilings was really frightening. I couldn't move, falling from one side to the other only able to watch cars outside jumping forwards and backwards thinking of what to do, when the walls would start to collapse...but they didn't...
The chandelier swayed massively and the old clock stopped ticking at exactly 12:51 pm. When I managed to go outside the other staff and guests started coming out of buildings assembling on the car park. The schools around us must have been evacuated as well with pupils now screaming and filling the air mixed with sirens and alarms which had gone off. A surreal and scary moment. It took me several minutes to actually realize what had happened.
TV 1 started broadcasting...
A dust cloud lies over the Canterbury plains, liquefaction turns roads into big silt pools, buildings tumble down, cars jump forwards and backwards, sirens go off and panic spreads everywhere.
It becomes clear, the new approximately 25 seconds lasting tremor would have caused significant damage turning Christchurch into a state of emergency. Since the earth moved so violently at lunchtime where the CBD would have been packed with commuters and tourists. Hopefully these people would have had a chance to escape.
However, what had turned out relatively lucky in september has now ended in disaster. I can only say that we were extremely lucky.
At this side of the city, although we did get the full force of the waves, we never lost power nor water, we managed to keep the business running, we didn't loose friends or family members. We were really fortunate that our old "lady", which was built to sway, stood strong. Not bad for a 135 year old building, aye? However, glasses smashed, crockery came flying off the shelves and bottles in the bar and wine cellar fell over. The noise and the rattling of walls and ceilings was really frightening. I couldn't move, falling from one side to the other only able to watch cars outside jumping forwards and backwards thinking of what to do, when the walls would start to collapse...but they didn't...
The chandelier swayed massively and the old clock stopped ticking at exactly 12:51 pm. When I managed to go outside the other staff and guests started coming out of buildings assembling on the car park. The schools around us must have been evacuated as well with pupils now screaming and filling the air mixed with sirens and alarms which had gone off. A surreal and scary moment. It took me several minutes to actually realize what had happened.
TV 1 started broadcasting...
Monday, 31 January 2011
Nihao
"Henian" - "Happy new year" in Chinese.
The year of the rabbit is being celebrated and 1,2 Billion people getting excited.
A few thousand who can afford the journey found the way over to New Zealand.
However, There were differences in package price and group size, although one can see that more and more Chinese spend more and more money for traveling. Imagine when all of them are able to do so.
A couple of groups were top end of the market with the whole nine yard package, the other six groups had a less expensive holiday.
All had in common:
friendliness
The aim to carry their luggage
Travel guide, never travel alone
Strict and tide itinerary:
10:30 pm Check in
11:30 pm Sleeping
06:30 am Wakeup-call
07:00 am Breakfast
07:30 am Pickup and Transfer to Queenstown
They loved our fruit salad and the brown German style bread, eggs and bacon and warm milk, put all on one plate and start eating.
Although we provided rice the demand for muesli was higher.
"Duochidian"
Chinese new years celebration is always a few weeks later then in Western countries. And each year they have another animal which leads through the year, this years is rabbit
The year of the rabbit is being celebrated and 1,2 Billion people getting excited.
A few thousand who can afford the journey found the way over to New Zealand.
However, There were differences in package price and group size, although one can see that more and more Chinese spend more and more money for traveling. Imagine when all of them are able to do so.
A couple of groups were top end of the market with the whole nine yard package, the other six groups had a less expensive holiday.
All had in common:
friendliness
The aim to carry their luggage
Travel guide, never travel alone
Strict and tide itinerary:
10:30 pm Check in
11:30 pm Sleeping
06:30 am Wakeup-call
07:00 am Breakfast
07:30 am Pickup and Transfer to Queenstown
They loved our fruit salad and the brown German style bread, eggs and bacon and warm milk, put all on one plate and start eating.
Although we provided rice the demand for muesli was higher.
"Duochidian"
Chinese new years celebration is always a few weeks later then in Western countries. And each year they have another animal which leads through the year, this years is rabbit
Thursday, 6 January 2011
Miau
Theo is the naigbours Cat, brown with beatiful hair, lazy and friendly. He likes to wander around on the property and especially in our garden. You can't blame him, there are lots of places he can hide and lots of things to explore such as birds, bugs, bushes and the pool where he sits and drinks the water-mmh jummy. Recently he explored our living room and figured out that the cosy sofa is really comfortable-so now he spends most of his time lying around and relaxing. One would pass him without detecting him since his brown coulored coat is a perfect camouflage. Only his friendly miauing would reveal that there is Theo enjoying himself playing with the cussions and now wants to get pet. He really likes that, aye?
I wonder how life would be as a cat.
I wonder how life would be as a cat.
Saturday, 1 January 2011
Boxing Day Jolts
Christmas Sale
The earth hasn't finished yet. 4.9 on the Richter scale meant new damage to the city. City mall, parts of cathedral square and Manchester street and Colombo street had to be cordoned off, scary to those who had been shopping since 26 December is one of the busiest days of the year. Fortunately no one was hurt, even though ceilings collapsed, bricks were falling off buildings and windows smashed and malls had to be evacuated. Touch wood... Apparently the new earthquakes caused more damage than the big one on 4 sep itself since those shakes were right under the city center and therefore much closer than the previous earthquakes. Until today we experienced more than 4000 aftershocks and those on 26 dec showed a new picture, a much more devastating. Just until then people were confident enough to go in the center again and out of the blue those nasty new shakes occurred, one can see them as a wake up call, the plates are not finished moving apart. Hopefully we don't get any more. Hopefully...
The earth hasn't finished yet. 4.9 on the Richter scale meant new damage to the city. City mall, parts of cathedral square and Manchester street and Colombo street had to be cordoned off, scary to those who had been shopping since 26 December is one of the busiest days of the year. Fortunately no one was hurt, even though ceilings collapsed, bricks were falling off buildings and windows smashed and malls had to be evacuated. Touch wood... Apparently the new earthquakes caused more damage than the big one on 4 sep itself since those shakes were right under the city center and therefore much closer than the previous earthquakes. Until today we experienced more than 4000 aftershocks and those on 26 dec showed a new picture, a much more devastating. Just until then people were confident enough to go in the center again and out of the blue those nasty new shakes occurred, one can see them as a wake up call, the plates are not finished moving apart. Hopefully we don't get any more. Hopefully...
Saturday, 25 December 2010
Summer Christmas Reloaded
This is the Second Christmas in Summer for me but compare to last years big Party in the Foley Towers Hostel this year it means working, since we are almost fully booked with familys from the United States, England and from Sri Lanka. However I still can enjoy this time of the year as the weather is continuing to be sunny and warm. Awesome weather compare to snow, ice, freezing temperaturea and chaos all over Europe...
I'll have a toast on everybody with a nice chilled glass of beer and a Summer BBQ in Huntley Lodges Garden. Total Indulgement...
Have a merry Christmas
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