Trip to Christchurch

I visited Christchurch over the weekend. My son went down to look around the university as he is interested in studying engineering there. It was the first time I had been there since before the September Earthquake in 2010. It is over 2 years since the first earthquake and the rest of New Zealand doesn't hear much about what is going on in Christchurch unless something big happens like another after shock or demolition of a big office bock using explosives. It was a real eye opener to see what Christchurch people are putting up with; the dreadful potholed and lumpy roads, broken bridges, shops inside shipping containers, huge areas of rubble and lots and lots of vacant land where shops used to be. I got very disorientated and couldn't work out where I was as all the landmarks I knew from previous visits were gone or blocked off by wire fences. I was amazed that the roof and ceiling of  Knox Church is still there, you can see right through. The people I was visiting try to avoid the centre of the city as much as possible so hadn't seen how much it had changed since they were last there. There are road cones and piles of bricks everywhere. Here are just a few of the photos I took.

 This bridge has been squeezed in the middle

 Knox Church

The picture above is the house next to where my husband's grandparents lived. Looks like the chimney fell off.

I was sent the link to this video by Dave from Christchurch. It is called 'There's a fraction Liquifaction'

C