Christchurch Feb 1st

One has to come here to see the devastation caused by the two earthquakes in Sept/10 and Feb/11. The city centre is like a war zone. So many buildings in ruins and high rise buildings empty waiting to be demolished. The city brought in hundreds of used containers to support buildings from collapsing on to the road side. They made a Rebuild mini mall with containers to bring the people back to the city centre which they may keep due to its popularity. One hundred and eighty five lives were lost in the 2nd quake. They are remembered with a display of 185 various white chairs on the site where most lives were lost. The people talk about where they were and what is was like and how they are rebuilding and life must go on. Christchurch is known as the garden city this we saw in the botanic gardens and Hadley Park the 2nd largest city park after Hyde Park in London. We walked from our hotel thru the park past a golf course into a the city centre this took about 35mins. Kevin wished we had longer so he could golf the cost for 12 holes is $10.00 and the hotel has free clubs for guests. The golf joke told to us by a local is -wear two pairs of socks in case you get a hole in one!!! Later we went to a Wildlife Reserve where we saw a Kia and Kiwi and other native wildlife. There are no snakes in New Zealand:) Our day ended with a Mauri cultural performance "KoTane" of action songs, stories and the Haka. This was followed by a traditional "Hangi " the Mauri way of cooking food done in a pit using heated stones with water or leafy vegetation thrown on to produce steam. The meal consisted of pork ,lamb,chicken,potatoes,kumara and pumpkin. The smell and taste of smoke was strong. A very interesting and varied day. Mary Rose