It was a strange start to the day weather wise, as it was more like a November morning, with lingering mist and an eerie silence. The sort of day that is often around on Remembrance Day. The only thing was; it wasn’t cold. Quite spooky really as today was to be the Service of Remembrance for the earthquake victims in Hagley Park. By 10.00 the mist had burnt off and it was a stunning blue sky day and we were just about fully cleaned up, packed and ready to return the campervan. We headed out of the site armed with our tourist map and just 8 hours to make a half hour journey to the rental return place located near the airport– we like a challenge.
We were soon going over familiar territory that we had travelled three weeks ago, but in reverse. The roads looked strangely familiar from when we got lost trying to find a supermarket after leaving the rental place. Before long we were passing the self same supermarket and the nightmare came flooding back. Fortunately we knew which direction we were heading in this time and we confidently traversed the intersections and before you could say supercalerfragilisicexpialegotious or however it’s spelt, we were approaching Memorial Avenue and the rental depot. That was absolutely magic as we had reached our destination in not much more than 20 mins. The only problem was that we had to return the van full of diesel and top up the gas bottle. We had passed a couple of garages, but thought there would be one closer to the airport depot. We should also mention that today is a bank holiday in New Zealand and most of the shops etc were closed. We started to drive round the airport believing that there must be a petrol garage nearby – wrong!! We eventually pulled into an unmanned garage, but it did not sell gas, so we had to move on and find somewhere else. 20 minutes or so later we found another garage that was open and sold gas, so we topped up with everything that was required and found our way back to the rental depot. By now the roads were looking quite familiar, so finding the depot was a piece of cake. All checked in we were soon in a taxi and heading back into Christchurch.
We had not gone very far when the first evidence of the quake became apparent. It started with just a few front garden walls on the pavement, which soon turned into houses completely collapsed, buildings leaning over at strange angles, yet alongside them, were buildings that were fully intact. As we approached Hagley Park there were thousands of people flooding towards the entrance for the memorial service, that we due to start in about 5 minutes. We passed a church that had lost about half of its external brickwork and spire and right behind and alongside it were modern buildings untouched by the quake.
Just 50 yards down the road, on the other side, a house had completely lost its front wall, so the whole of the inside was visible from the road. As we pulled up outside the Motel, across the road used to be a two houses that were two stories high. They are now just one story high as they have sunk straight down into the ground.
Christchurch was apparently built predominantly on marshland and when they have earthquakes something called liquefaction occurs and grey sludge is forced upwards through any weaknesses or holes in the ground. We saw evidence of this where it has come through the ground where street lights go into the ground. It also apparently happened on the golf courses, coming up through the holes in the greens!!
We were too early to check into the hotel. So we left our luggage and walked up to the park to listen to the remainder of the service and join the crowds. The turnout must have been a few hundred thousand as the audience was like a mega open air pop concert, with large screens around the stage.
We sat listening for a while before getting the rolls out that we had prepared this morning. Can you believe we had just one bite and then they played ‘God Save the Queen’ and we all had to stand up. Just after that Prince William gave his speech, which was followed by more local dignitaries and a local musician. We sat in the sunshine for just over an hour before deciding to walk back towards the motel, venturing down one of the main roads leading into the city centre. We had only gone a couple of hundred metres before hitting an army roadblock, stopping us from going any further. The road is normally one of the main highways through Christchurch and it is now completely desolate, with nobody moving in the city and no cars, but the traffic lights are still working.
Arriving back at the motel afternoon tea was the order of the day and I decided it was time to sort out all the receipts we had accrued and balance the cash card statement ready for another pasting on North Island. Andy, the motel proprietor, warned us to eat early as most of the restaurants in the city are still inaccessible and the pub/hotel just down the road will be packed with locals and rescue workers. We took his advice and walked into a heaving bar, but managed to get an early table. We ate in this place on our previous visit, so it was a known quantity, with friendly staff and good food. It made a change not to have to cook and wash up this evening, making it taste that much better.
As we returned from the pub we crossed over the road to look at the buildings that had sunk and it was quite unbelievable as they had quite simply just gone down into the ground by one story. There was no big hole, they had just sunk!
There was a beautiful sunset this evening, ending a very strange day.
As we are sat in the motel room we just experienced our first aftershock. The room just vibrated for a couple of seconds with no notice that it was going to happen, but of course you have no idea if it’s going to get stronger or how long it will go on for. It must be very disconcerting for the people who live here and have experienced a proper quake.
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